Teletext analyzed the sales numbers for singles in the UK recently, discovering that if you take digital downloads out of the equation, CD singles seem to be going extinct. Green Day’s “21 Guns” single, for example, ranked second on the sales charts with only 477 units sold. Another interesting statistic is that if your band wanted to have the 16th highest selling physical single in the UK, 64 copies would do the trick, as it did for Florence and The Machine.
It should be noted that these numbers include 7” vinyl and, according to Teletext’s John Earls, the “big problem for CD singles is that shops simply don’t sell them any more.” Well, can you think of anyone out there who’s opening shops to sell 7” vinyl? Jack White, I say.
I don’t think Jack White will be hawking CD singles anytime soon, so if you factor in his planned 100 vinyl releases in the next 2 years, White may play a hand in helping the 7” single outlive its digital cousin.