Charli xcx Releases ‘Music, Fashion, Film’ B-Sides as an iTunes-Only Download

Charli xcx has made a rare retreat from streaming logic. The B-sides to her recent album Music, Fashion, Film are out now—but only as a £4.99 download on iTunes. There is no playlist placement, no algorithmic push, just a direct transaction.

The 15-track collection shadows the album’s tracklist, one counterpart per song. In an Instagram note, Charli framed them as something she felt compelled to explore: “I’m a big believer in the idea that when your inner source throws something up from within you, you have to explore it.” That instinct produced material she describes as “adjacent to the album but not entirely part of it.”

The release format is a deliberate statement. Charli admitted she resisted putting these songs on streaming, calling that impulse “counter intuitive to the whole ethos of those songs.” The download-only route—a near-archaic gesture in 2025—recalls an era when B-sides lived on physical singles and accrued cult status slowly. She’s aware of the friction, adding with a shrug: “you can call me a hypocrite, i don’t mind 😉.”

Music, Fashion, Film itself was received as a quietly intense shift. A 9/10 review in these pages described its brilliance as something “to be savoured in quiet privacy, not under the bright lights of a club.” Those words feel even more apt now, applied to a set of songs she chose to separate from the infinite scroll. Whether these B-sides become fan favorites, as she predicts, will depend on listeners willing to pay for a closed loop.