[unreal37]

This article is pretty funny when you look at all the subtle statements and think about what they actually mean.

"The smaller, cheaper "45" record dominated music in the 1950s and '60s, but the music industry wised up in the '70s."

This means, 45's were very popular and then the record industry purposely killed them to sell consumers more expensive full albums just to get a copy of the same song.

So the music industry were ripping people off, and the advent of piracy/digital downloads means they can do longer do that.

Interesting biased article. Needs a proper translation though from RIAA-speak to real English.

[anigbrowl]

Another way to read it is that labels put more capital and effort into developing artists that could produce albums instead of chasing single-oriented bands that tended to flame out quickly. The Beatles and the Rolling Stones were trailblazers in this area because they were able to produce 8 or 10 good songs that people would pay money for in the form of an album.

I'm no fan of the RIAA, but amount of cognitive bias on this thread is ridiculous. The record industry didn't kill singles at all, I bought plenty of them growing up.