Woolworths’ announcement that it is to beef up its online digital music sales was coupled an era-defining announcement – that it is to stop selling CD singles in August.

The über-chain will still sell ‘event singles’ such as a popular Christmas number one or talentless show winner but – to all intents and purposes - the CD single is dead.

Are you surprised? I’m not - Woolies is simply following the crowd. It’s been hard to even find CD singles in a store such as HMV for some time now, while when I visited Woolworths a few months ago I was shocked to find CD singles relegated to a cardboard standee somewhere near a vast array of Xbox games.

The store says that while CD album sales remain strong, the single market is down by over a third this year even compared to 2007. Eight million CD singles were bought in the UK last year. Compare that to a staggering 55 million in 2000 and a UK record of 78 million physical singles in 1999. Woah.

“Everyone remembers buying their first record at Woolworths, which is why there is a degree of sadness in today’s announcement,” said Woolies spokesman Jim Batchelor.

He’s spot on, but the announcement is the ultimate sign of our times. Top of the Pops is over, so is traditional Saturday morning TV, VHS and the cassette – analogue creations duffed in by the digital age. The CD single is just another of these.

“The reality is though that more and more people can’t remember the last time they purchased a CD single,” continued Batchelor. Sad indeed, but so true.