I wrote an short article about the concept of the split EP in this 21st century. It was posted up on my record label's website, but here it is in full.
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I downloaded some songs from a Example Band A's website. It said: "Our side of a split CD with Example Band B. We had 50 copies and sold them only at shows".
Great concept, the split. You love The As but you've never heard of The Bs. Now you've got no choice but to listen, no option but to form an opinion. 7"s are good, CDs even better; they run automatically from A's songs to B's. You become a fan or you don't, but one way or another both bands get their music in plenty more ears.
Example Band A's songs are great. I listen to them a lot. But when they finish, my speakers don't automatically blast out Band B. They're playing mp3s, not a CD. I didn't get my hands on one of those elusive fifty. I only have half of the split.
The ways in which we distribute and listen to music are obviously changing a lot, and this is just a tiny part of that. But it's worth focusing in on. The formats of 'album' and 'EP' seem to be doing well in a digital guise. Not so the split, which is born as a limited edition physical object, but is more likely than not to spend the rest of its life on two separate Bandcamp pages with no links between them.
Perhaps bands should trade files, and upload everything to both sites. Perhaps they should shove all the music into one mp3, and to hell with the iTunes categorisation consequences.
But they should do something, because - even though they're probably my style, even though I could love them, and even though they might well turn into my new favourite band - I've still never listened to Example Band B.