This editorial topic came to me once again from looking at the metal business from a fan’s point of view. I’m betting that this has happened to you out there in reader land about as many times as it has for me. I’m out looking for the new album by one of my favorite bands, let’s call them, band X for simplicities sake and as an overview of what I am talking about in general. Ok, so here we are with band X’s new album coming out and I see it in the store on the release date by a stroke of luck and promptly pick it up. So I’m sitting at home blasting this new album rocking out and in metal ecstasy, that is until I get on the internet. As I get on the net I find out that this new album I have JUST PURCHASED has been released in about five different formats each containing different track listings. There is the “standard” edition which I have, the “Deluxe Digipak” edition that contains three exclusive bonus tracks, the “Super Magnificent Luxury Book” version which comes with a bonus disc packed with unreleased material and bonus tracks, the “Box Set from Hell” edition that comes with both discs in the “Super Magnificent Luxury Book” version but also has a poster, sticker, extensive liner notes and extra computer video tracks, and then there’s the “Uber Special Fantastico Ultimate End All Be All ‘comes in a guitar shaped box’” edition that comes with not one, not two, but three discs, the third disc which is completely exclusive to this box set and no where else, a SIGNED poster, a laminated backstage pass, a fifty page booklet detailing everything you ever wanted to know, a DVD with a full concert and promotional videos and instructions that if performed to the letter under a full moon and on the twelfth day of the eleventeenth month the band will materialize into your room to perform a free concert for you. As I read this I become depressed and pissed off at the same time. I’m depressed cos I now know I have the shitty “standard” edition with none of the extra goodies and pissed cos if I want to hear everything else I have to shell out (depending on which version I decide to get) anywhere from twenty to a hundred bucks. I’m also dismayed at the band and record label for pulling shit like this and doing this to their fans and so I retreat to my room in a sour mood and that feeling of elation I had five minutes ago from buying my favorite bands new cd is completely gone.

Why do labels do this you ask? To be honest there isn’t always a mean streak or ill intent towards the fans all the time. Most of the time actually the labels do want their fans to get more for their buck and include video tracks or demo songs on every edition of the album. Also sometimes they just release the stuff like “Luxury Book style” for free and no extra charge and no bonuses either, its just nicer packaging but I’m betting there’s very few people out there that go “DAMN!! I don’t have the book style packaging! I MUST go out and get it NOW!,” so I can’t complain about things like that. What I can complain about however is this, and this really makes me mad because it is a BLATANT scheme to line the labels pockets with money as fast as possible of their popular artists. What am I talking about you ask? The whole “First 10 000 copies come in a special digipak with three bonus tracks” scheme. Digipaks are a lot cheaper to make than standard jewel cases cos let’s face it, its nothing more than cardboard so there’s nothing really all that great about digipaks in the first place. Since the label wants a faster than normal seller on this new album by their most popular artist they manufacture 10 000 copies at a much lower cost than the normal cd and know that the rabid fans will eat up that initial pressing at an extremely fast rate thus netting them maximum profits in as little time as possible and once again if you can’t pick that up when it first comes out you get screwed out of new music by one of your bands. Now that’s just on different PACKAGING things that labels get into, regional differences are just as big a pain in the ass if not more.

Most people out there know all about the fun of Japanese imports don’t you? 99.99% of the time these contain exclusive (and often times unreleased) bonus cuts for the mere price of about thirty dollars US. I only get Japanese priced cds if they are by my favorite bands and come out months ahead of the Euro or US edits. That’s another very frustrating thing to deal with as a fan, when cds come out in Japan up to three months before they do anywhere else or in some cases they are released ONLY in Japan. So now you can sit there knowing that new music is accessible but at a steep rate or you can wait a quarter of a year for it to be released in your territory. Now that’s just Japan. Canada and South America have different sets of bonus tracks as well. The distributor NEMS has a reputation for releasing cds with multiple bonus tracks in Canada and South America BUT I will say they are priced reasonably, my entire Blind Guardian collection is from them with so many exclusive bonus tracks and demos that its not even funny, but they all only cost me about sixteen bucks each, what I would have paid for them normally over here. While they might have more bonus tracks than the Japanese cds they are usually different and consist of live cuts or demos.

So as a fan and record buyer you might be asking yourself “God what the hell should I do then? Why do I even bother buying cds if I have to deal with all this crap?” Well, I hate to break it to you but this is something that probably isn’t gonna disappear anytime soon but I think that this epidemic is in the minority at least. Now with the advent of cheap douchebags downloading everything in sight and never bothering to purchase albums to support bands (In my mind you are nothing but worthless shit if you never buy cds and claim to be a metal head or a fan of the bands in general. Even if you live in Greenland there is a way to get cds and that is called mail order. Granted it won’t be as many cds or as often as some other people but at least you are supporting the musicians instead of downloading entire discographies for free. I’d better save this topic for a later editorial before I get too much into it here) a lot of labels are starting to get better packaging deals and include freebies normally without need for “extremely limited editions”. I know that this sounds cliché and trite but if you want your opinion to be heard the best way is to email the labels directly about your thoughts on this matter and just make sure from now on you’re the first to get the “Uber Special Fantastico Ultimate End All Be All” edition of your bands newest cd.