Now, the Pets are in a different league than Numan in terms of sales, or at least I think they are. So releasing singles is probably a little different for them. In the US I often wonder if most of the videos that are seen on MTV Hits (which still plays music) are even released as singles, or if they're only released as video singles and promos, because when I go to an online retailer to check them out, the singles for these songs just don't exist. That said, one has to go to a really big corporate record store in a major city to find any singles--I don't think Target, Walmart, and chains like that even carry the top five singles anymore, let alone any singles.I've been getting a few questions about why we are making the new Leather Sea single available to pre-order rather than just release it to the record stores as before.
So.
We've had a great reaction to The Leather Sea and thanks to everyone who has already bought it as a pre-order. However, the market for singles, and the way they are being sold, has changed a lot in recent years. Over the last 12 months or so, CD single sales in the UK have plummeted by somewhere between 50% and 60%, depending on what retail chain you are talking to. Not only that, many people in the industry are saying that, in the not too distant future, CD singles will be a thing of the past and that downloading will be the primary, if not the only, way of buying singles. No wonder then that the retail chains are sometimes slow to buy stock of CD singles, which is why we've decided to set up a pre-order for the two limited edition CD formats of The Leather Sea - as a way of making sure you get what you want. We will of course try our best to get the single as widely distributed as possible but in the current market we can't guarantee that it will be in your local store when it's released. Pre-ordering gives you that guarantee.
If this new approach is a success, and there is still a proven demand for CD singles, then for the moment pre-orders seem the best way forward, but either way I am increasingly excited about the new era of digital singles. As you know, The Leather Sea will also be available as a download with two exclusive tracks and I'm really hoping it's a success in its own right as digital singles open up many opportunities for releasing things that are just too prohibitive with hard copy releases. Digital singles should make things a lot more interesting and exciting for artists and fans. I'm fascinated by the way things are evolving and the speed at which it's all happening. I think it's an amazing time to be in the music business and it's an amazing time to be a fan of music.
At least in the US, it seems to me that a successful campaign for something like I****gral would be something like a fantastic video (like, the I'm with stupid video would make no sense to anyone in the US who hasn't seen the last 20 years of PSB videos) with a good club promo campaign and maybe a couple placements on television or in commercials. That would sell records, or at least that's how others have done it. (Remember Moby's Play got no sales or airplay when it first came out, until some songs found their way onto some commercials...)
Anyway, I just read this and thought readers here would appreciate Numan's perspective.
