What's up with all the limited edition re-releases lately?
 

I remember they re-released a limited edition of Franz Ferdinand late last year with additional tracks. Now they have done the same thing last week with The Killers 'Hot Fuss' and this week with Interpol's 'Antics'. I always feel cheated when I buy something when it first comes out and find out later a better version, or at least a version with more music has come out for the same price. Do you think this trend is going to continue?

It probably will continue.

They did it with Hawthorne Heights too....


I know 50 Cent's 'The Massacre' is being re-released, with a few bonus tracks and videos, very shortly.


CD's are just following in DVD's footsteps...

$$$$

Yep. Look at the DVD market. Paramount is the king at releasing bare bones product and then doing a special edition sometime down the line. People will pay for it, so until that stops, the music industry won't stop the practice.

I don't bother with re-releases if the sound isn't being remastered. I don't really care about b-sides as I am more of an album listener.

The Stooges remasters that were released last week are fucking awesome, though.

I think it is a record company policy devised to discourage illegal downloading. Those guys are just too smart.

Good tip, the only Stooges I have is a poor sounding live Cd. Might go pick some of these up.

-Gunshy

Re-masters & or B-sides offer something new to a medium that doesn't wear out. Even the most scratched cd's will play, and most people can rip and burn them themselves to prevent having to buy a new copy, unlike tapes & recods that wore down over time and warranted a repeat purchase.

This is just a way to squeeze more out of a release. I think I prefer this method over releasing a dozen different greatest hits albums.

I saw Alanis Morrisette on a late night show the other night talking about how the record company wanted to rerelease Jagged Little Pill. She figured everyone that wanted to own it already does so what is the point? So instead, she re-recorded the album all acoustically to offer something truely unique that people would buy. :up: to that idea.

I really don't like when the bonus tracks, remixes, etc. are on the same disc as the main album, as they so often are. Nobody would put up with a DVD that placed deleted scenes right after a film's ending, so I'm not sure why this CD practice is tolerated. I guess not everyone is as anal about the album experience.

$$$$$$$

look at Fall Out Boy. 'Take This To Your Grave' was a hit for Fueled By Ramen records. when Fall Out Boy got bigger and more kids got into them, releasing a new CD with Island, FBR re-released 'Take This To Your Grave' with a couple extra tracks. is it really worth an extra couple bucks? not really, but FBR would be dumb not to re-release Fall Out Boy's previous CD and try to cash in on their popularity. Uprising Records did it with Fall Out Boy's first release 'Evening Out With Your Girlfriend'. They went a different route and actually remastered the CD. Does it make it better? not really since the band hadn't hit their sound quite yet. But again, it would be dumb not to re-release Fall Out Boy's previous release for all the fans of the new CD could buy. Completists.

also I agree with a previous poster in saying it also tries to discourage downloading of music, by adding videos and exclusive tracks and so on.

Yup.

I take into account the album experience too. I recently rebought Violent Femmes - 'Violent Femmes' as the new 2 disk deluxe edition. In it they note the original album ended with Good Feeling, but when put on CD the record company added Ugly and Give Me the Car as bonus tracks which they complained completely ruined the ending of the album experience. It made total sense to me. Also, Lucinda Williams self titled album is an absolute masterpiece without a wasted song- I rebought the CD when it was reissued with 6 live bonus tracks, and while the tracks aren't bad, they are sort of unneeded and sort of bring the album down now in my opinion. A live EP would've been better IMO.

Also, I recently bought Jethro Tull's 'Thick as a Brick' for the first time based on someone's recommendation. I could only find it in the 'Remastered' version which tacks on a 10 min live version of TaaB and an interview with the band. I bought the CD to hear the album and love it, but I've yet to listen to the shortened live track or interview track as I have little interest in them. And who puts interviews as a bonus track on an album anyway? Even if it was an album by my favorite artist I'm not going to want to listen to an interview over and over like I would an album of music. They did the same thing with Jethro Tull's 'Aqualung' too.

That being said, I am usually a sucker for the limited edition versions of albums, but I'm getting more and more disenchanted with them as more and more of my 'normal' CDs that I own are becoming obsolete because of new and better(?) reissues.

I don't mind so long as there is significant content. The Killers should have thrown a couple more of their B-Sides on the disc.

Morrissey did a pretty good Platinum Edition of his last album. The album was 11 tacks long and the new edition added 10 B-sides for a total of 21 tracks. And the B-Sides are actually really good. Better than some of the album tracks.

I agree with you.

That's why the Stooges remasters are so great. Full album on one disc, extras on the other.

Didn't even realize these were released. I orded the remaster of Funhouse 2 minutes after I read you post. :)

:thumbsup:

Today I considered buying the Killers but decided not too. Thought about buying Smash Mouth's greatest hits (guilty pleasure) but didn't do it.

A case of a few songs I don't have for $9.

But I did buy the New Pornographers even though a friend gave me a copy months ago.

It is Bullshit, is what it is, especially in the case of the Cure. They release a box set of rarities and b-sides, then they announce they will re-release all their albums with additional unreleased material. EXCUSE ME isn't that what the box set just released for $50 is suppose to contain? I own all the Cure stuff, several are imports (about $25 each) bought when there was no US print available, and most replaced a cassette version. Now after buying they complete catalog, twice in most cases, and their rarities box set, I have to rebuy their catalog to get an additional 1-3 songs per album that I do not already own. BS!!!

I think it's ridiculous, but the record companies know a cash cow when they see one. At this point, I refuse to buy the second, pimped up version, even if I'm a big fan of the artist. I love Elvis Costello's stuff, but I downloaded the extra material when the Delivery Man album came out for the second time.

On topic, bonus re-releases are a marketing ploy to boost sales once the initial sales have fallen off. It lures consumers who want a little extra. And it's not the music market following DVDs but the other way around. Some CDs have gone through a dozen "editions" since their first release, especially classic rock or jazz releases.

I am pained to see that no one has bothered to point out the differences between Jessica Simpsons 'In this Skin' and 'In this Skin - Collectors' Edition' with her fantabulous cover of 'Take my breath away' with backing vocals by her husband Nick Lachey. Do you people live under a rock? That album sold millions!

...i DO live under a rock, how did you know?

Yeah, it is annoying.

I bought The Killers-Hot Fuss like two weeks before the limited addition with 3 new songs came out as I wasn't aware it was coming.

Umm, the selling point of those reissues is the remastered sound. Seventeen Seconds sounded like crap on the original cd issue. Same with Faith.

I sure don't like getting screwed over when the rerelease a CD with extra tracks, an extra cd, or an extra DVD. That is why for the most part I buy everything used and sometimes pick up the LE CD if it is worth while. That way I've only invested a few dollars on the used CD and I can get most of it back by trading or selling it IF I decide to upgrade.

Fine, still does not cover the issue of releasing a Box Set of Rarities and then putting 2-4 different rarities on a dozen reissues.