You know, I understand that the music industry is in crisis.
I understand that any business grows by getting more clients, or making more on the clients they have. But, I'm kind of sick of paying for the same music, over and over again, just to get every track released in an album cycle. Slash's solo CD was the worst. I own six albums, all different, in my attempts to track down all the tracks he recorded. I bought the Classic Rock special edition, the CD single of "Saraha" (this was actually my most expensive purchase), the standard release (not sure why I have that), and two "deluxe editions," which had slightly different bonus tracks and slightly different contents on their DVD, plus a box set that was released last, and contained every possible track that I'd already bought, plus a couple I'd been unable to track down. I also saw him live and bought a double CD of the show that night, and will probably buy the triple CD release of his new live DVD. Where does it end? And, the Classic Rock special editions have become a mixed bag. I recently bought three. The Alice Cooper one had an extra studio track, which is not (yet) available elsewhere. The Chickenfoot and Machine Head releases both came with live tracks, and Machine Head then released their own special edition with two cover songs on it. How is a live track the best they can do for a "deluxe" magazine release? Surely if they have no more studio tracks, they can do a cover or two, and to make me buy two different deluxe editions within a month of each other, is just taking things a bit far. I can't imagine the Classic Rock folks where thrilled when they realized. Bullet for My Valentine have done the same with acoustic versions and on special "tour" editions. It just does not end.
On top of this, is the ongoing trend for "deluxe" remasters, the entire Queen back catalog has recently been given this treatment, and I have literally dozens of CDs I already owned, bought for the bonus content and remaster. The Def Leppard Hysteria one actually had a ton of good content (b-sides from singles), but stuff like the Rainbow remasters had "bonus" content that equated to a lot of half finished studio tracks that were basically unlistenable, and
Pyromania had a soundboard recording of a live show that really didn't add much value. Not only that, but they initially came in nice, deluxe packaging, but now they are coming in standard packaging with a sticker that says "deluxe" on it. I'm the first to say that the music industry is fighting for it's life right now. And, some good things are happening: there's a series of box sets that are basically five albums for $12, in original cardboard album sleeves
(I know it's cheaper, but it's also cool). I've bought a ton of those.
This is a step in the right direction.
Charging me triple for an album I have, to sell me tracks that are unlistenable, or trying to
make sure I buy a new release at least four times, just feels like fraud and they don't help in a world where people can choose to steal music, and do choose to do so everyday. Labels can't prosecute to stop this and they need for people to care enough about music and about the artists
to buy their music.
Sunday, November 20, 2011 at 12:01AM 