I realized something yesterday. I haven’t seen a Single V release from Hello! Project in years. Why did they stop releasing those? The Single V would normally have the main version of the PV, an alternate version (usually Close-up), and a significant amount of Making of footage. If you wanted the Dance Shot Ver., as I usually did, you had to buy the CD single, Limited Edition Type A, which generally came with a supplemental DVD offering the Dance Shot Ver. Single Vs normally had the one song, although towards the end, they had two songs with two different videos on them, plus Making of. Now, if you want all the PVs for each of the songs in a two- or three-song single release, you have to buy separate copies of each.
I just checked my inventory and the last three Single Vs I bought were these:
Tues. Feb. 14, 2012
Buono!: Single V "Hatsukoi Cider / DEEP MIND" DVD/1500yen/released 1/25/12
Fri. Dec. 2, 2011
S/mileage: Single V "Tachia Girl" DVD / rel. 10/12/11
Wed. Oct. 5, 2011
Morning Musume: Single V: "Kono Chikyu no Heiwa wo Honki de Negatteirundayo! / Kare to Issho ni Omise ga Shitai"
DVD/ 1500 yen=$19.18/rel. 9/21/11
(The Making of segment for this release is 69 minutes!)
The first current release Single V I bought from CDJapan was this one:
Tues. May 27, 2008
C-ute: Single V: Namida no Iro (2008)
I did eventually purchase many earlier Single Vs from CDJapan, and I’d actually bought quite a few older ones from Book Off after becoming a fan in 2005, many of them on VHS, e.g. "Love Machine" and "Do It! Now."
So I was actively buying current Single Vs from 2008-2011.
When and why did they stop?