Why don’t artists release cover singles anymore?

[lazer]

Back in the 20th century, it was common for artists covering other artists songs and put their own style to it. A good chunk of them did well on the charts and some covers did better than the original song. How come that stopped now?

[someguy]

I wouldn’t necessarily say it has stopped. Luke Combs just had a massive hit with his cover of “Fast Car”.

[Luckie Starchild]

It might be that covers are really now mainly for reality tv singing contest shows? Also, the large volume of songs with samples maybe makes up for the lack of proper covers.

[The Brazilian Guy 🇧🇷]

I was literally talking about this yesterday with family/friends lol

During our new year's party there was a playlist on and 3 covers were played almost back to back (Faith No More's "Easy", Sheryl Crowe's "D'yer Mak'er" and Maxi Priest's "Wild World") and a couple of us started discussing how doing covers used to be so much more popular in the past (with very few exceptions like Fast Car)

[Glass Joe]

That is a good point. Artists just seem to interpolate (like “I’m Good, Blue”) or sample (like “Barbie World”), but unfortunately just don’t really cover anymore.

The early-mid 2000s seemed to be when most covers were being made. Some of the best ones came out of that era. Such as:
Ataris - Boys of Summer
Sheryl Crow - First Cut is the Deepest
Duff Sisters - Our Lips are Sealed
311 - Love Song
Goo Goo Dolls - Give a Little Bit

I know there were many more, but that was a golden age for covering songs.

[jenglisbe]

I think it's because of money. Artists don't make money off cover songs because they don't get any royalties. Most artists now write their own songs (or at least get themselves listed as a writer), which allows them to make more money off the songs.

[kluen]

At that time,it's very common that a song that has different versions which were recorded by different artists from different genre and promoted differently.
Like Diana Ross and Dottie West's Last Time I Saw Him
In this century,this still happened but not frequently as at that time I think.
Like Reba McEntire covered Beyonce's If I Were A Boy.

And there are same song that were recorded by different artists and there were some competitions between labels to get which artist's version to played by the radio.
Like for Jeannie C.Riley's huge hit Harper Valley P.T.A back in 1968,Billie Jo Spears had a version at the same time but Jeannie's version picked up by the radio and became a successful one.There was something about releasing faster or other factors.

And I think at 60s,70s,the concept of cover is not very much strong.It's just a song that multiple artists record or cut it.
And at that time,for an album,especially country album,there are not much original materials,there are many songs that are many covers of the hits around that time.

I personally think technology has something to do with this being less common.
Because for artist to consider recording a cover song as single
They need to cosider if this song has reached full potential at the time it was released,if there is any point releasing it again,if they could bring it to a whole level of new audience.
And different artists,different producers and different labels have different opinions so maybe will make it hard.
For example,Reba McEntire's Fancy is sort of her signature song now and it is a cover from Bobbie Gentry.
And at first Reba wants to record it but her then producer thought it was sort of already reached full potential at the time Bobbie released it so he vetoed the idea.And Reba waited and presented it to her next producer and he agreed.Then this song got cut and released and became her legacy.
And with technology developing,people have easier access to music,old or modern.
So it might become more difficult than before.

[G@bing$20n]

I don't know, between Creepin' (I Don't Wanna Know) and Fast Car covers seem to be making a bit of a comeback. I for one would take that over lazy sampling a la David Guetta.

[• Господин Умљеновић •]

Oh but Lana Del Rey covers almost every year something.