zombieparadise 487 Posted February 20, 2016 I've been wondering this for years, but never received anything other than an ambiguous answer. Maybe someone (or everyone) can tell me:What's the difference between a single and a maxi-single? 1 inartistic reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dark Kinma 960 Posted February 20, 2016 A single is a release with one or two tracks and maxi single is the release with more than 2 tracks or with Cd+Dvd. And of course a single is cheaper than a maxi single. 1 zombieparadise reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LIDL 692 Posted February 20, 2016 A single you can likely find in an album later on. A maxi, sometimes you won't, it can act as stand alone song that were released to give artists some more time to finish an album so the gans won't feel such a long wait in between times. Case in point: DEG's Ain't Afraid To Die. 1 zombieparadise reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
inartistic 1151 Posted February 20, 2016 Maxi is a prefix which means “big”, so it's literally just a “big single”. So it just means that it has more songs than a normal single. In the end, it's just a marketing term, so it doesn't always mean the same thing. For example, most VK bands will consider a “maxi-single” to contain 3 songs, but UNDER CODE has released several with only 2 songs, and Kiryu has released a maxi-single with only 1 song... 2 suji and zombieparadise reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
WhirlingBlack 1043 Posted February 21, 2016 Single vs. Maxi-Single originally referred to different physical formats, a single was a 7 inch vinyl with one song on each side while a maxi single was either a 7 inch with more than one track on one side, or a 12 inch disc cut different from an LP so it didn't fit as many tracks, and a different physical format compared to an EP. It's complex and apparently it involved different definitions in different countries as well. In Japan though, I generally get the feeling that VK bands arbitrarily tack "maxi" onto anything shorter than an EP in order to squeeze and extra 500yen out of their fans, despite that the content not always warrants it. 2 zombieparadise and inartistic reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
zombieparadise 487 Posted February 21, 2016 Thanks peeps! Judging by everyone's answers, it seems like 'Maxi-single' is pretty convoluted term (In the VK world, anyway)I'm sure I haven't been the first to ask and definitely won't be the last, hah. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
