"Auskopplungen" in musical context

Question

I'm translating a short Wikipedia article about a music band from German to English.

I've done most of it with help from Google Translate and my virtually non-existent knowledge of German language, trying to understand and correct the funny word selection and sentence structure that the automatic translator comes up with, or checking how individual words translate.

I've done most of it, but I'm stuck with the following:

Nachdem die letzten beiden Auskopplungen wenig Beachtung fanden, trennte sich die Gruppe.

Google translates it as:

After the last two decouplings found little attention, the group separated.

Most of it is clear, there wasn't much attention/interest, so the band split up. But I don't know what decoupling is supposed be about (tried looking it up, too, but to no avail). German word Auskopplungen also translates as outcouplings or extractions, which in this context doesn't seem to make sense to me either. Apart from translating individual words I tried combinations, which didn't help either. I don't know whether it's some finer point of German language or something else I don't understand.

Answer 1

If you look at existing translations for the context of music:

Diese CD ist die »Auskoppelung« der Musik-CD aus Axel Zwingenbergers fulminantem Fotobuch »Vom Zauber der Züge«, das über [...]
This CD is detached from Axel Zwingenberger's fulminant photo book »Vom Zauber der Züge« (»The Magic of Trains«), which includes more than 200 of [...]

Mit der ersten Auskoppelung The Day that never comes" lassen Metallica sogar jene, die sich auf der Autofahrt ein Stück [...]
With the first extraction The Day that never comes" Metallica gets the act together, that this song will blow the minds [...]

mit den "Fantasiestücken" von Robert Schumann, einer Auskoppelung aus ihrer ersten LP, die 1959 in Paris veröffentlicht wurde.
[...] 1953 will be included in the set together with the Schumann "Fantasiestücke" from her first LP issued in Paris in 1959.

Daher legt Schott diese nun als eine Auskoppelung aus der bewährten Ausgabe der 6 Sonaten (ED 4927), herausgegeben von Walter Kolneder, in einer Einzelausgabe vor.
This is why it has been taken from the edition of the six sonatas (ED 4927), published by Walter Kolneder, and is now presented by Schott in a separate edition.

aarhusE.dk, eine Auskoppelung von DIEM, dem Konservatorium für elektronische Musik in Aarhus, präsentiert elf dänische Elektro-Künstler
aarhusE.dk, an outtake from DIEM, the conservatorium for electronic music in Aarhus, presents eleven Danish electronic artists.

Wer nach der Auskoppelung jedoch glaubt, den musikalischen Rahmen von ATLANTIS zu kennen, irrt: `Reich of Phenomena? lässt [...]
Those who chose to stereotype the musical framework of Atlantis will commit a grave error: "Reich of Phenomena" delivers [...]

You will realise that there is seldom a good fitting translation, if it is not plain wrong as a translation.

But as Auskoppelung means usually a single or maxi release you might comfortably choose that:

Nachdem die letzten beiden Auskopplungen wenig Beachtung fanden, trennte sich die Gruppe.

After the last two releases received little attention, the group separated.

or more clearly:

After the last two released singles from that album received little attention, the group separated.

Answer 2

Auskopplung is actually a German musical technical term for pieces that originally were released on albums and later re-released as singles. I don't think a similar term exists in English, so you would probably translate this as

single re-release

or

single release