Talk:Single (music)

message: For the UK at least, this section is inaccurate - promos are usually released to individuals and organisations deemed 'influential' by the labels/PR companies in order to be played on the radio, DJs to include the song in nightclub playlists, journalists to review the release, etc. To mention just rap artists and Keane is misleading. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.108.140.47 (talk) 07:19, 10 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Promo singles 

message: Where does the naming convention for music and films come from to capitalize all words but a, the and a few other words? --Abdull 19:32, 5 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Presumably it's an extension of the style commonly used in English for titles of books, articles, etc.  According to Capitalization#Headings_and_publication_titles, it came about as an old form of emphasis for titles, "similar to the more modern practice of using a larger or boldface font for titles."  If you want more info than that, you'd probably be better off asking at Talk:Capitalization--Severinus 05:58, 7 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Naming convention 

message: I have re-ordered the text regarding the different formats. It's now in chronological order (in terms of when the general public began to embrace them). I've also re-worded it - it was vinyl that gave us the terms "A-side" and "B-side", so why explain that in the "CD" section? --ThomasBisset 00:53, 31 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Ordering of Formats 

message: Should there be a mention/explanation of the "b/w" (backed with) and the less common "c/w" (coupled or combined with) notation used when listing songs on a single?  I get the feeling they're only ever used when referring to vinyl singles, but I'm not at all in the know and was wondering if such info should go in the general part of the article.  Thoughts? --Severinus 06:10, 7 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  b/w & c/w 

message: Hi there,
Would be grateful if anyone interested could please take a brief look at this dispute on cassette singles, and provide your opinion. Thanks. Fourohfour 17:38, 8 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Cassette single: Third opinion from interested parties 

message: :Add  # Support  or  # Oppose  on a new line in the appropriate section followed by a brief explanation, then sign your opinion using ~~~~.  Please remember that this survey is not a vote, and please provide an explanation for your recommendation.
====Survey - in support of the move====
#
====Survey - in opposition to the move====
#Oppose It is clear that there are many other uses for Single. You alse shouldn't have moved the Single page first, that is something that should have been done IF this move request works. TJ Spyke 03:03, 19 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Survey

message: #Oppose It is clear that there are many other uses for Single. You alse shouldn't have moved the Single page first, that is something that should have been done IF this move request works. TJ Spyke 03:03, 19 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Survey - in opposition to the move

message: I've added a couple of pars to the beginning of the history section -- I'd appreciate any comments on this.
Dunks (talk) 00:08, 26 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  History 

message: The article emphasis the single's role as usually being extracted from a current or upcoming album to promote the album. Is this true? Surely singles were invented before albums and continued to have an independent existence. In the 50s and 60s, a lot of people (certainly in the UK) bought singles, but couldn't afford albums, so they represented a different market. Bands like The Beatles released different material for the singles market than they put on albums. Radio DJs for many years only played singles. Bluewave (talk) 18:03, 22 January 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: agree, this lead paragraph should be reworded. riffic (talk) 14:05, 12 September 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Relationship to albums

message: When I am writing an article, how do I decipher whether it is a single or just a song. ex: (infobox single or infobox song) Can any song be considered a single? Song example: Song For A Winter's Night; it wasn't included in the singles section of Gordon Lightfoot's discography, so I didn't count it as a single. However, I have see other discographies where all thir songs seem to be included in the singles section of the discography. Ex: Ernest Tubb discography. Daniel Christensen (talk) 05:44, 17 February 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: singles are a type of release. if a song hasn't been released as (part of) a single it shouldn't be called one. riffic (talk) 14:06, 12 September 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: single/song

message: : In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a short recording of one or more separate tracks.
Does the phrase "of one or more separate tracks" contribute anything to the meaning of this sentence? —Tamfang (talk) 00:57, 14 September 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Changing that to "one or two" is too explicit, as a single (see Maxi single) could theoretically contain more than 2 tracks. riffic (talk) 03:09, 14 September 2010 (UTC)
replies: text:  Note that word typically. —Tamfang (talk) 23:14, 14 September 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  tracks 

message: Why, what, where, and how does this article need additional citations for verification? Hyacinth (talk) 17:16, 1 July 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: Additional citations

message: "These factors, combined with the 10-inch songwriters and performers increasingly tailored their output to fit the new medium."
That sentence doesn't make much sense to me.. it doesn't seem to me to be grammatically correct and I'm not exactly sure what meaning it was trying to convey, although I have guesses. Also, I notice the next sentence launches into talking about "The 3 minute single". I think it should be mentioned somewhere before that sentence that a single was 3 minutes, rather than assuming the reader already understood that as common knowledge. Perhaps that sentence could be reworked into something like: "The rotation speed, combined with a 10-inch disc, resulted in a playback time of 3 minutes. As a result, songwriters and performers increasingly tailored their output to fit the new medium."  (Note: I don't know if the playback time was exactly 3 minutes or only approximately 3 minutes, I'm just going off what the article already says.) --72.211.147.156 (talk) 15:11, 8 August 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Sentence needs work, starting point for a solution provided 

message: The beginning of the history of the single claims that discs started overtaking cylinders in the late 19th century.  Tim Brooks book "The Columbia Master Book Discography, Volume 1, published by Greenwood Press, has at the bottom of page 14 a list of the number of cylinders and discs produced(in millions)in the United States. In 1909 18.6 million cylinders and 8.6 million discs were produced nationwide.  The next listing is from 1914 where 3.9 million cylinders are said to have been produced and 23.3 million discs.  So, in manufacturing, discs didn't "take over" any earlier then 1910.  Johnbasalla (talk) 03:32, 24 February 2013 (UTC)
thread_title: Discs versus cylinders

message: This article has some problems.  For example:  The introduction indicates that singles are primarily related to albums as hooks etc.  I don't know if this is correct or not, but in the early sixties, I was pretty much unaware of albums but was inundated with singles on 45s.  Were most of the hits back then really even on albums at the time they came out?  More recently, as commented by some-one else on this comment page, online singles are frequently unrelated to other songs:  just singles.  A second issue is that I cannot find any-thing about one-side shellac disks.  Some-time in the early 20th century, these were common -  maybe the first shellac singles were all one-sided.  Some-one knowledgeable in the history of recording should fix up this page. Kdammers (talk) 16:46, 31 January 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Incomplete and unsupported 

message: I removed the Australian segment on DVD singles because it was vague and only referred to cartoons, not music.
I'm in favour of removing the other example-by-country lists for the UK and the US as well, expanding the segment on their prevalence in Japan. The lists as they stand are poorly cited, and just generally pretty unhelpful. If anyone wants to make a serious go at it, I think they should be shifted to a dedicated List of DVD Music Singles, but left off this page. - MVHVTMV (talk) 05:28, 27 May 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  DVD Singles Examples 

message: The lead image says "45rpm single waiting to be played".  Aside from the fact that it may have just been played and is waiting to be removed, the biggest issue is that the picture depicts and Extended Play 45, not a single.  Is there a similar picture that can be used?  If not, I can create one that shows a true 45rpm single.  78.26 (spin me / revolutions) 18:15, 9 June 2017 (UTC)
thread_title: Problem with lead image

message: We added a few sections in a few categories to make the information more expansive. We found the introduction to be a little bit vague, so Kac static added more declaratory info regarding what a single is, and briefly describing how it has changed. Listihe also added a subsection under the "culture" section, for the same reasons. We made sure to add references and included internal Wikipedia links as well. Tabarak 57 (talk) 03:41, 30 March 2019 (UTC)
thread_title: Fixes Regarding Information

message: A side, B-side, yes that's the norm. But in the glory days of vinyl there were double-A side singles (AA) where the radio was expected to play both side more or less equally (typically so one side could be played on one show and the other side of the following show), although they often favoured one side over the other. The response to this was the AA-A single where both sides were encouraged for radio play but the 'AA' side was meant to be given preference. Not sure if the radio stations ever took this too seriously. Of course plenty of records like Magic Roundabout/Funky Moped by Japser Carrott where the a-side was banned so the rather feeble b-side got the airplay to the confusion of many a listener. Stub Mandrel (talk) 21:42, 13 September 2019 (UTC)
thread_title: Ta(l)king Sides

message: Following this Wikiproject Music discussion and the numerous discussions on this talk page about the lack of this article defining that the term   "single" has two, closely-related and confusing definitions, I have significantly changed the lead section.
This rewrite aims to cover these definitions of a "music single":
# The release type, "single". Also known as a "single album" or "physical single", or "pre-release single".  A single is a release that contains 1-3 songs. It can contain an A and B-sides. Some of the tracks, always the A-side but sometimes the B-side too, may considered a "single" as-in the second definition (depending if it meets the requirements). These second definition "singles" are considered a "non-album single" if it never appears on an album or EP..  This is the "original definition" of a "music single". Singles, as in this definition, used to always be released physically before they were ever incorporated on an album. Now, singles have transitioned to include the second definition.  Music streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, Youtube Music, and others have continued to only distinguish singles of this definition and not the second for discography consistency and release accuracy.
# The individual track or song type, "single". Also known as a "digital single", "album single", "lead single", "title track", or others. However, these terms also have more-specific definitions and requirements that pertain to how and when the single was released. All are considered a "single" though.  A single is usually the promoted song(s) on an album or the song(s) that reach the highest popularity. "Promoted" can be defined as a music video being created for the song, the artist specifically stating it is a "single", or another defining characteristic.  An album can have multiple singles. An album like Lilac has the pre-release single (as in the first definition) Celebrity (IU song), the title track single "Lilac", and the singles "Coin" and "Epilogue". All four songs also meet this of single.  Basically, this definition can be used for all song singles and therefore defines what songs currently make up the singles list of an artist's discography on Wikipedia.
Why we need the second definition
* I and Wikipedians in the past have gotten confused when looking at Template:Infobox song or Template:Infobox album and seeing "Single", clicking on the definition which links to this page, and finding that it only covers the first definition when the song marked with single is actually a single as in the second definition.  Even more confusion is fostered when you look at artist Singles discography lists. This confusion is clearly present in discussions above on this talk page.
* The music industry and music publications have used this definition of single as the music industry since the coming of the digital music age when the promotion and usage of singles of the second definition became extremely commonplace. Look up any artist and a name of one of their singles of the second definition and you'll see that music publications always call them singles.
Lectrician1 (talk) 00:55, 16 August 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Change of lead section