The machine of the city

In the history of the music industry, singles very rarely made any money. The cost of production and distribution meant that the unit cost to consumers was way below what it cost the record companies to make them. Although famous for making poor business decisions, this was not because the record companies were stupid. Rather, they knew that singles were the marketing for album sales. A single that did well in the charts would garner a huge amount of coverage and salience at way below the co