The man who discovered Oasis, founded Creation records, and championed indie bands from My Bloody Valentine to Teenage Fanclub, has sounded the death knell for the single. Alan McGee said the format will soon be obsolete, unable to compete with the meteoric rise in downloading. Writing on his website, McGee warned record labels: "Downloads will be king within the next couple of years. The majors have lost the football ... CDs are ugly fucking data invented by the majors. Only useful now for DJing or downloading to your iPod. Their game is up."
McGee, who manages Dirty Pretty Things, cited the success of the Arctic Monkeys and Lily Allen, who found fame and sold records via the internet, and said download culture had challenged what he called the major labels' monopoly on music sales. "Music is changing again, and it's in favour of the musicians and the indies," he wrote.
The comments were dismissed by the BPI, which represents UK labels. "It depends how you define the single," said a spokesman. "In terms of the volume of single tracks that have been sold, the market has doubled in just over a year. What has happened is that the singles market has accommodated a new format, the download."
