Singles

Lately I've been enjoying Pandora, an online "radio station" music streaming service that does its best to play only music you like, based on how you seed the station with artists and songs that you like. It's not flawless and the service likes to overemphasize certain artists (how many Coldplay songs are there, anyway?), but it is free and it does allow me to hone in on music in my favorite format: the single.

Since I was a kid saving up my allowance to riffle through the 45's at Mason's in Phillipsburg, I have always avoided the albums and preferred to consume my music one great song at a time. I honestly think that's how most people would prefer to collect music if they have a preference, and in the very early days of recorded music, that's how people got it.

Unfortunately, music became a business somewhere along the way, and savvy marketers realized that they could "package" a bunch of songs by an artist into an "album" of music, with perhaps one or two good selections and a whole bunch of filler. The LP record became the music distribution method of choice in the 1950s, primarily because it simply had better profit margins for the burgeoning music industry.

Exactly one popular group ever had the talent to be able to consistently create an album's worth of excellent music at a time: The Beatles. For almost everyone else, albums were essentially excuses to promote and gain more income for a popular single song.

I never bought into this hype. While my friends were oohing and aahing over album cover art, I always headed for the 45's. I'm sure this was partially influenced by my lucky teenage years being a DJ at KKAN, but still.

I wanted my favorite music to have variety, and while I might accumulate multiple singles from some artists (Daryl Hall and John Oates; Heart; The Eagles; KC and the Sunshine Band!) I always had my eye out for the new, interesting, unique single. I collected a lot of one-hit wonders.

Vinyl moved to CD, and the CD Single was an especially rare species. In the 1980s and 1990s, the record companies did everything they could to force the public to buy by the album instead of by the single. I have about 900 vinyl 45s but only about 200 CD singles in my collection; the last one was purchased about 1999 or so as I recall. The music industry was getting fat and happy, but leaving a huge swath of the public frustrated.

Then of course, along came Napster and the concept of downloading music, by the entire album if you so chose, but oh so especially by the single song. The music industry responded by simultaneously jacking up the price of album CDs to $15 or more...and ruthlessly pursuing people who might have had the audacity to download a single song, because there was no other way to get it.

iTunes and Amazon have successfully collapsed the "greed" model. Today, I can listen to Pandora, and when I hear something interesting and special, I can go right to Amazon and pick up the single song for as low as 79 cents. My music buying is re-invigorated. From 2001-2007, I might have added 10 songs a year to my collection. These days, I'm back up to 50 or 75 a year. All because I can once again peruse the virtual racks at the 21st century music stores and get my music the way I like. One great song at a time.

My 900 vinyl 45's? They're all sealed in protective bags, 25 at a time, awaiting the day when they might be valued and wanted by someone who wants to hear music that was recorded and played back without benefit of any computer or internet whatsoever.

If I ever sell them, I'll likely put them up for auction on eBay or its future cousin. One song at a time.

Oh, and: Here are a few singles I'm listening to this month.

"Hand Me Down" by Jeff Larson
"Kandi" by One EskimO
"I'd Rather Be With You" by Joshua Radin
"Downtown II" by Fancey
"Right Where I Belong" by Beggar's Caravan
"Sinking Wishes" by Matthew Perryman Jones

...I guess I'm still into one-hit wonders.