Like I said before, only this time I’ll explain.
Why is it the UK, Germany, Australia, Japan… go ahead name some other country and chances are they have a CD with more songs on it and some other bonus material. So I end- up having to buy CD singles with the material that should have been on the CD in the first place, only I live where the standard CD has 12 tracks on it.
What’s the reason behind this? Obviously money, but somehow I think there’s more to it than this.
??? The standard CD in the US has about 12-18 songs on it.
I don’t understand the question.
How 'bout some examples?
Ok, forget the fact that I said 12 tracks alot of times it’s 14, regardless the Q is why does the quantity of artist material on a given CD in other countries surpass the quantity of material on an American “album” more times than not?
I know what you mean. Often the imported CD’s have extra tracks that aren’t included on the American version, which means if you are a die-hard fan, you have to shell out the $25+ to buy the import. I don’t know why, but I just wanted to let you know that I know what you are talking about.
The way I hear it, the reason non-American CD releases tend to have more “bonus tracks” is due to piracy. They say (“they” being a member of a band posting to a message board I saw once) that this is common in Asia, particualrly in Japan. If the Japanese release doesn’t have any bonus tracks that aren’t on the US release, no one in Japan will buy it because they will already have bootlegs of the US version.
Interestingly enough, I saw a nearly opposite case last year when Nightwish released their album Once. The album came out in Europe a few months before the US, and had 11 tracks. Their first European single “Nemo” was released in two versions, each with different b-sides. When Once came out in the US, it had 13 tracks, with the two bonus tracks being both of the “Nemo” b-sides.
From that, it seems that if you delay the release of a new album anywhere, some people from places where it hasn’t been released will manage to get illegal copies before it’s released in their country. Some of those people might buy it anyway when it becomes available, and the bonus tracks are incentive to do so.
D
Once was definitely the exception rather than the rule, and undoubtedly only came out that way because Nightwish can actually sell albums. Most stuff that comes out in Europe first just comes out later in the US.
I don’t think it’s just the case that these CDs are bootlegs or pirated or in some other way non-legit.
I can think, off the top of my head, of a few albums i purchased in Australia that had a couple of bonus songs over the original release. The first one that comes to mind is Beth Orton’s Central Reservation.
In its original iteration, this CD had 12 songs. In Australia, when Orrton was touring the country, they released a version with two “exclusive Australian bonus tracks.”
Here is the original release. I couldn’t find my exact Australian edition on Amazon, but i did find yet another release that contained the same 14 songs as my copy, plus yet another two songs, remixes of one of the songs already on the album. That CD with the four extra songs is listed on Amazon as a Limited Edition Import, and the cover says the same as mine: “Includes exclusive Australian bonus tracks.”
I’m not sure how to explain all this. One thought i have is that many of these CDs are probably released first in the US, and then by the time they’re released elsewhere, the record company’s local arm decides to try and entice buyers with a couple more songs.
:shrug:
I’ve got a copy of “The Man Who” from the British band Travis which still has a sticker on the case which trumpets the fact that it comes with “two US-only hidden bonus tracks”. A sticker on their followup album “The Invisible Band” also claims “2 Bonus Tracks” but says nothing of it being a “US-only” thing. So occasionally we Americans are the lucky ones.
Just a WAG but perhaps it has to do with market?
The label might include extra songs that might go over better in one country then another. Or perhaps include the extra songs to make the album more attractive to the buyer in a market where that genre (or band) hasn’t sold as well.
Be thankful that you’re buying your CDs in the US, thinktank. The price of CDs in the UK is heinous, probably the same cost in pounds as dollars. This was such a noted disgrace that I believe it was debated in a House of Commons select committee a few years back.
I thought that was the idea, to stop those in the more expensive markets (like the UK) resorting to bootlegs.
In Japan, consumers usually have the option of buying either the US version of a CD or the Japanese version. The US version is not a bootleg or illegal, but is cheaper (although still more expensive than in the US) and is usually available before the Japanese version. By putting bonus materials on the Japanese version, the record company hopes to get consumers to either re-purchase the album, or to choose the more expensive of their options.
cckerberos you make the most sense so far, unfortunately Americans aren’t really given the chance in say your local K-mart (Walmart edits music and pictures so they suck :P).
So if you’re in K-mart and you’re looking at Jeff Buckely or Tori Amos or Nelly Furtado (all good examples) you can’t find the Japanese import sitting behind the American version. It’s U-S-A - all-THE-way. There’s not even a time lapse as you say it is so in Japan between the local and the imports. You have to go hunting the internet and before that, you would go “true” musicstore to musicstore looking through the same section.
I don’t know about anybody else, but you can only be SO hardcore.
Seven you almost quoted word for word what my wife answered when I asked her last night. I do think demographics is an important thing if it’s PR-related and “band image” sorta stuff but there’s also the highly touted “freedom of speech/expression thing” when artists are involved it’s almost a given they are going to try and push the proverbial “line”/“envelope” or what have you to make an impact on their listeners/viewers; so why “censor” their works? This is crap we should @least be given a choice.
American CD’s what???
Their track listing?
Their inlays?
Their jewel cases?
Their content?
I’m happier with 12 good songs than 12 good songs plus 4 or 6 throwaways. Just because a CD *can[?/I] be 74+ minutes long doesn’t mean it’s better when packed to the gills. (Usually only 5 or 6 songs from a record end up on my iPod anyway.) If you’re that interested in an artist’s ephemera, it’s probably still cheaper to buy the regular American CD and download the others songs off iTunes than pay for the import.