As we tipped some weeks ago, one of Australia’s largest CD retailers JB Hi-Fi will stop stocking CD singles, citing declining sales. Is this necessarily the end of the CD single in Australia? Have single track downloads caused its end? ARIA figures show that CD singles sold 1.3 million units in 2008 – a drop of 47.3% from the year before. In comparison 23.4 million digital tracks were sold through last year.

Other retailers still stock CD singles. www.Chaos.com reacted to JB’s news with a We Love Singles campaign. Its CEO Rob Appel says, “We are finding that physical sales of CD singles, and in fact all formats, are continuing to grow online. 2009 sales of physical product are up 20% on 2008, which was also a growth year. It seems clear that people still want these formats but are opting for the convenience and savings of online shopping. The CD single is particularly popular with online collectors and avid fans.”

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