THE SINGLE IS DEAD, SAYS MCGEE

As you weigh Alan McGee's case for the death of the single (he reckons all over by Christmas), you may want to factor in his track record. True, he did realise that Oasis were the pefect dead horse to flog to the marketplace, and was right on that score. But, on the other hand, he did also believe that Ed Ball, Heidi Berry and everybody on Poptones ever would find favour in the market place.

Anyway, the McGee thesis is that we're heading back to the early 1950s:

"By the end of the year the single in England will be obsolete. Downloads are killing the physical sales. Downloads is song culture like the 50s. The start of rock'n'roll song culture is/ was rock'n'roll. The majors have lost the means of distribution now.

"Downloads will be king within the next couple of years. The majors have lost the football. The accountants are fucked because they never liked music anyway. CDs are ugly fucking data invented by the majors. Only useful now for DJing or downloading to your iPod. Their game is up."

Somewhere, slumbering under a hill in the west country, is the ghost indie army of Are You Scared To Get Happy fanzine, which might be roused by this sudden attack on the CD from McGee, who was burned in effigy when he threw Creation's weight behind these "ugly fucking data" formats back at the end of the 80s. Who knew he hated them all along, eh?

music alan mcgee downloads