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THE REBIRTH OF THE SINGLES MARKET I am an artist who owes my fortune and career to hit singles. Through the fifties and most of the sixties, 'singles' whether on 78 or 45 rpm, were the mother's milk of the music business. I collected them the way other kids collected baseball cards. I knew the artists and the songs, the titles on the flip sides, the writers and publishers, the designs of the labels and even the playing time on most of the records. I played them, I sang them, and my dream was one day to make them. For the music business, singles were more than just revenue. Their position on the charts was the indicator of how popular a group or singer was. It could also determine if the record labels would make a long-term investment in the artist. The business model was simple. First, you put out a single to see if it had legs; to see if there was a market for an album. If it did and there was, you hurried into the studio and recorded ten or eleven other sides, one of them being the next single, which you released simultaneously with the album. The cost of a single was about a buck and an album might set you back $5.98. Hit singles were the measure of all things. That was the way it worked when I was asked to join that elite club in 1966. Hearing my voice on a record and, even more importantly, on the radio was as giddy as a first kiss. There was nothing more exciting on earth than an exploding single. And anything that made it into the Top 20 was heard by about half the population thanks to AM radio. The whole media network: radio, television, magazines, and newspapers all seemed to be focused on breaking the next big act. That time is still referred to as the golden years of the music business and hit singles were the measure of all things. Then it happened. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was released in late 1967 and opened the floodgates to a new era in the rock and roll industry. There was a new creativity in songwriting and production and everyone felt free to experiment. Multi-track recording systems went from four to twenty-four tracks overnight. FM radio began broadcasting rock and roll in stereo and everything sounded great. All of this fueled by millions of baby-boomers with money to burn. The record companies loved it. It was now possible to make ten times the revenues they were making on singles. I'll never forget going out on the Hubert Humphrey Presidential Campaign in August of 1968. When we left New York, the voices on the radio were 'The Rascals," "The Association," "The Turtles," "Gary Puckett," and "Tommy James and the Shondells." When we got back ninety days later, It was "Crosby, Stills, and Nash," "Led Zeppelin," "Blood, Sweat, and Tears," "Joe Cocker," and "Neil Young." All album acts. The great singles record labels began disappearing as they were eaten up one by one by the big guys. Gone too were the professional songwriters like New York City's Brill Building crew as groups began writing their own material. Fortunately, the Shondells and I were working on something called "Crimson and Clover." Because we were the only big act at Roulette at the time, we were allowed to clear our own path. We made a conscious decision to fit into the new album market. "Crimson and Clover" allowed us and Roulette to smoothly make the transition into this brave new world; so many of my friends did not. But whether anybody liked it or not, the fix was in. From now on, it would be albums, albums, albums. 
For a while, everything went great. The industry could not make enough money and the creativity was intoxicating. The music business went global and money started pouring in from every corner of the earth. Record companies started signing acts to do expensive albums hoping one or two of the tracks would be hit singles. A diabolical system of radio airplay was invented called parallel radio, which meant record companies had to market and promote their product nationally. First, you conquered the little stations, then the medium stations, and then the large stations…keeping out the riff raff. The only problem was it made it impossible to break out of any one market like I did with 'Hanky Panky' in Pittsburgh back in 1966. Radio formats also broke down into smaller and smaller categories: AC, hot AC, Urban top 40, Americana, etc. By this logic, 'The Stones,' 'Aretha Franklin,' 'Bob Dylan,' 'Frank Sinatra,' and 'the Buckinghams,' would all have been on differnt radio stations.' But no single category could deliver the kind of numbers that the old top 40 stations could. Selling records became increasingly problematic. Finally, the industry stopped making singles altogether. And finally, the fans stopped listening and stopped spending. See CASH BOX Top 100 Singles from this era During all this flux, the CD replaced vinyl and tapes and upped the price of an album to about $17.00. The fans were not interested in spending that much. Repackaging proven acts became the only avenue the major labels had to make money and the front line music business collapsed. When the dinosaurs die off, all the furry little mammals come out to play. But then a funny thing happened almost like a law of nature. When the dinosaurs die off, all the furry little mammals come out to play. Suddenly, there was a new way for the fans to get music: DOWNLOADS. Every previous technical innovation had been given to the fans by the record companies whether they wanted it or not. Not this time. It was the fans telling the record companies what they wanted. The fans brought back the singles market. I-pods, single-song downloads, and file sharing became household words. Databases started popping up all over the Internet. The record industry became terrified and tried to fight back even to the point of suing the fans. But over the past few years, with great reluctance, the record companies began giving the fans what they wanted, what they always wanted…SINGLES! Radio still needs to become part of the 21st century. There is still a lot of work to do revamping the industry. Getting 'new music' in front of the fans will be the biggest challenge. Record companies will kick and scream but at least they are finally moving in the right direction. Radio still needs to become part of the 21st century but I have no doubt that it will. Formats are going to have to be glued back together and a new version of what the AM stations once gave us will have to be rebuilt. I have great confidence in the collective greed of the industry and the talent of the artists, writers, and producers to make and distribute great music for the fans both old and new. I believe we are seeing the rebirth of the singles market and, by extension, the whole music business. Hallelujah |
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