1990s CD Maxi Singles
Shortly after the onset of the 1990s, CD had clearly become the music format of choice. As the 1990s progressed, nearly every single release was available on CD, and vinyl and cassette single releases gradually became less common.
The UK became a thriving market for CD singles, but in 1998 the UK Chart Supervisory Committee reduced the maximum playing time of chart-eligible CD singles from 40 to 20 minutes, though 12" vinyl singles could still play for up to 40 minutes. While Maxi-CDs had been much loved among the dance community, as most if not all of the remixes that had been commissioned by the label could be released commercially, lobbying by artists in other genres who felt obliged to record extra and cover tracks to provide enough material for their single releases was to blame for the rule change. As a result, UK singles from around mid-1998 often appeared as 3 separately-sold CDs with 3 tracks each, or more commonly, 2 CDs and an extra format (such as 7", 12" or DVD single). Very often, at least 1 track was common to all formats. Single releases in the US and elsewhere still included many tracks (primarily remixes) and called themselves maxi-singles to differentiate from the 3-track UK versions.
Example: Saint Etienne – Who Do You Think You Are? (US CD single) Released by Warner Music in 1993 in the USA. Includes 8 different tracks, 6 of which are versions of the title song. Digipak packaging. Labeled "compact disc maxi-single" on the front cover.
Another extensive example is the collection of singles released for the award-winning Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness by The Smashing Pumpkins. Each of the five singles ("Bullet with Butterfly Wings", "1979", "Zero", "Tonight, Tonight", "Thirty-Three") had two or more additional songs; most of them had six or seven. All of the maxi singles were released together, with additional tracks on some, as the Aeroplane Flies High boxed set, for a total of thirty-three tracks across the five singles. Adding that to the total number of other unique tracks on the main CD and vinyl releases of the album itself brings the grand total track count of Mellon Collie to fifty-eight.
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