[purlieu]

Intriguing. You raise an interesting point bringing 12"s into it, I would expect vinyl editions of Underworld's singles as, despite the rise in digital for DJing, it still seems to be the favoured format for dance music. Bjork has been favouring collectable multimedia release formats for a while so there have been a number of CD and 12" issues for her remixes, although not much seems to have come from Vulnicura.

In general though, I think the New Order and Pet Shop Boys CD singles are very much the exception to the norm. They're probably also lucky to have the sort of legacy where a large enough portion of their fanbase are avid collectors to make them a worthwhile option.

Or maybe they're just daring enough to do something a bit old fashioned because they or their fans want it. Underworld haven't done all that much trend-bucking in a while, sadly. Although there are some hefty 10 track promo discs around that I wouldn't mind picking up, I do agree that having proper 'retail' singles would be a really good idea. Even if they just put a few hundred of the thousands of promos aside to sell through the site. Obviously a reasonable amount of time and money has gone into designing them and getting glass master discs manufactured, it definitely seems like a wasted opportunity.