Editing A-side and B-side (section)

==History==
Conventions shifted in the early 1960s, at which point record companies started assigning the song they wanted radio stations to play to side A, as 45 rpm single records ("45s") dominated most markets in terms of cash sales in comparison to [[album]]s, which did not fare as well financially. Throughout the decade the industry would slowly shift to an album-driven paradigm for releasing new music; it was not until 1968 that the total production of albums on a unit basis finally surpassed that of singles in the United Kingdom.<ref>MacDonald, p. 296</ref>

Today, with the vast majority of music released and accessed digitally on [[Music streaming service|streaming services]], the traditional A-side/B-side is obsolete as a technological necessity. Nonetheless, some contemporary artists have added on a second track to a single release as a nominal B-side, which can serve as an aesthetic choice as well as a promotional tool.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Return Of The B-Side Single |url=https://www.vinylmeplease.com/blogs/magazine/return-b-side-single?srsltid=AfmBOoqgMsnJn0beBUffQaaD_R2HggPQpxNL-1yaUdC5kmy3bqOouKlb |access-date=2024-10-21 |website=Vinyl Me, Please |language=en}}</ref>