Quote:
Originally Posted by khouri
I could be mistaken but I’m pretty sure the very first person to sell a digital download song was David Bowie, but possibly Prince?
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I think it's all down to how it's phrased:
Because Duran Duran claim to have released the "internet's first-ever digital single for sale" ... but that was in September 1997, and Bowie's "Telling Lies" came out as a digital single in September 1996 - a full year earlier, albeit as a free download.
However, I don't know if you could technically call Bowie's "Telling Lies" 'a digital single' because they released a new remix each week, for three weeks. So, I guess it comes down to - whether or not you consider the staggered release as negating "the single" ...but then again, the downloads eventually were released in physical format as well.
Prince might've been the first to have exclusive releases available online? (Does that sound right?) ...Or he may have been the first (or one of the first) major performers to release an album as a download.
So maybe it was just that Duran Duran were the first to
charge for a digital single.