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"Mercury Records is to abolish the production of physical CD singles. The music label has reported that 99% of its single sales are downloads, leading it to announce the end of single CD production. Mercury is home to artists including The Killers, Arcade Fire, U2 and Elton John. A company spokeswoman said: &amp;quot;For the past couple of years we have released physical singles only when there is demand. &amp;quot;With physical formats now accounting for just over 1% of the overall singles market we are being more cautious.&amp;quot; She added: &amp;quot;That said, physical singles are not disappearing and we will still release them when there is a demand.&amp;quot; The spokeswoman noted that an upcoming release from White Lies will be available on 7&amp;quot; vinyl. Mercury still holds the record for the UK&amp;#039;s biggest-selling single, with Elton John&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;Candle In The Wind &amp;#039;97&amp;#039;. Discs will still be available for special circumstances, such as charity singles. &amp;quot;Major labels have struggled to find a way of coping with the relatively small runs that a physical single entails,&amp;quot; said Ian McCann of Record Collector magazine. &amp;quot;But real records are still must-have items.&amp;quot; Bands such as Bloc Party have previously suggested that they will stop releasing physical singles. Downloads were incorporated into the UK singles chart in 2005 and standalone downloads without a physical release became eligible in 2007. There has been speculation that data from streaming sites may be incorporated into the charts in future. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/music/news/a311006/killers-arcade-fire-u2-to-kill-off-singles/>