Article - Bonus Tracks Or Not Bonus Tracks... That is The Question

Comment by Law (Anonymous) - Tuesday, March 18, 2003

I thoroughly agree. It's a ridiculous scenario that a CD has to have "bonus" tracks just so the Japanese will buy it and we can miss out. At least here in Australia alot of the best metal albums are imports anyway and most importers attempt to get the additional track versions of the CDs if they can. When I buy a new CD and later find out its also been released with bonus material, I really feel cheated.
Also a pity since on quite a few CDs the bonus track is well and truly as good if not better than the rest of the album (eg On Edguy's Mandrake, the bonus - "The Devil And The Savant" is awesome)
Record Labels take note - we, the buyers are the real fans.

Comment by Mads (Anonymous) - Tuesday, March 18, 2003

Yes I agree with the Edguy track it kicks ass...

Comment by Tommy (Member) - Tuesday, March 18, 2003

View Profile

Comments: 74
Ratings: 31

Yes this certainly is a very important theme.
It's fine to have extra songs or other stuff on an album, but all editions should so there would be only one edition for the whole world.
CD's are expensive enough as it is. I always buy the special edition because I want everything by the bands I love, but it surely would be much easier with only one example and then that's it.
It is a big problem when you want a special edition of a record, and then you find out that it is almost impossible to find.

I hope that the record business will change their policy, and give all Metal fans the possibility to buy the same music at the same price, anywhere any time.

Posted by Tommy
Tuesday, March 18, 2003

Comment by Claus / Intromental Management (Anonymous) - Friday, March 21, 2003

I am not sure if I should get involved in this discussion, since I have a completely different perspective on it that you guys, and I don't really want to make enemies just over such a "minor" subject. But the fact is that there's a reason as to why the Japanese companies demands the bonus track for their releases, and why we (the managements and/or the musicians) choose to give them that extra song.

In Japan the price for printing CDs are more expensive than what it would cost for them to import finished products. Therefor the record companies in Japan, who wants to release products instead of importing products, need 1) a bonus track and 2) a couple of weeks headstart on the rest of the world w the release date, otherwise it would be "financial suicide" to them. The CDs that the Japanese companies releases are also more expensive for the Japanese fan (due to the higher pressing costs) than the imports.

Another market is t.ex. Korea, who also demands a bonus track, which is different than the European or the Japanese bonus tracks. Why? Well, because the imports in Korea also are cheaper than the ones printed there.

And so on and so on ... thus, we might end up with 4-5 different versions of ONE cd. Sometimes we can get past the point of providing bonus tracks, if we instead give them something different (such as a poster, a digipack or whatever), but usually it's the bonus track that decides if you get a deal in t.ex. Japan, and from the musicians point of view this is DAMN important, as the money to be made are huge over there.

Sorry guys, but with the situation of the different markets/territories right now (as long as imports often are cheaper than officially printed CDs), there aren't much to do about the bonus tracks. They are a necessity.

All the best - thx for reading,

Claus Jensen
managing director

Intromental Management

www.intromental.com
claus@intromental.com

Comment by Tommy (Member) - Tuesday, March 25, 2003

View Profile

Comments: 74
Ratings: 31

Well Claus I see your point, and it is a difficult subject.
But as I look at it you can see it from the fan side and from the business/money aspect of it.
If only one CD was produced, the only way to deal with the higher prices in ex. Japan was to accept high imports, or lower the price on the domestic market. If the domestic prices was lowered, there would be bought more CD's, making up for some of the loss due to lower prices and loss to imports.
I know that life is not always that simple, wish it was, but maybe a strategy in the direction of the one mentioned above could help the low sales in Japan, and stop the bonustrack madness.

Stuff in Japan is very expensive, but does it have to be a completely "new" track they get when the bonus approach is taking in. What about a poster, some DVD or PC features, or a live song. I know that the sales would be better if it was a "new" song, but money isn't everything.

As a mega Metal fan, I get pissed of when I find out that there exist songs that, because I live In Europe can't get a hold on, or have to pay around 40 Euros for.

Many bands find it very important to enter a new market, and this is clearly understandable. But bands have some power over what they wish to engage in. I hope that more bands, if no other possibilities exist to bring Metal to Japan, would restrict the bonus material to posters, DVD stuff and live songs.

Something that also is very important is that the bonus stuff becomes availed later on for people outside Japan. And there I don't mean on expensive singles or questionable best offs.

I have noticed that more and more CD's in Europe is released in different versions. When a record company does this, one of their objectives is to earn a higher profit. Why is it then that many of these special editions are sold out very quickly? I find this completely silly. There are a great deal of consumers that are ready to pay for the special edition (now and in the future), but that does not help very much when the record companies does not make enough of them! Are they afraid of earning too much? Think about that future market. If I discover a new band that released a CD two ears ago, and I want to get a hold of the special edition, my situation is not that great, either because it is sold out, I have to wait for ex. 4 moths to get it, or pay a too high price for it.
One thing is releasing special editions, but if companies do, then for the sake of everybody make enough of them, what is there to lose other than a higher profit.
Metal to the people.

Tommy
RevelationZ Magazine

Posted by Tommy
Tuesday, March 25, 2003

Comment by Ben@metalreviews.com (Anonymous) - Saturday, March 20, 2004

I've done an editorial about not only bonus tracks but the "limited" edition nonsense as well.

http://www.metalreviews.com/reviews/detail.php3?id=1773

was that a shameless plug? Yes it was.

Claus makes a very very spot on point too about Japan, in my mind Japan can sort of get away with having their bonuses even if it does irk me. The thing that makes me mad though is when an album is released in about 50 goddamned formats in one terriitory.

Ben

Comment by DsssM (Anonymous) - Tuesday, November 16, 2004

It’s not tragic if bonus track is another version of old song (live, acoustic, remix) or cover (sometimes it could be interesting). Quite often these bonus songs are nothing special, but in some cases it could be one of the bands best songs like Nightwish’s “Wayfarer”, which was bonus on Japanese or Korean edition. Off course, quite often I could get this song on b-sides and bonus compilation (Dark Moore’s “Between Light And Darkness” ) or best off as it is in case of Nightwish “Tales from the Elvenpath” (I get it “Wayfarer” on “Bless the Child” limited edition EP ;). But the situation with these limited editions, digipacks and Brazilian, Japan etc. editions are unfair, because I afraid that quite many good songs get lost from fans and not all bands release unrealized material, and if do, then once in 10 years or after disbanding. Additionally there could be also a difference between European and American release (each have different bonus track and one could be better than other).

Talking about prices in Japan – today all companies’ tries to minimize the cost of product, so it’s strange that in Japan they don’t want to import cheaper CD’s but produces expensive ones. SONY TV’s for Europe are produced in Spain and Slovakia, because it’s cheaper than to import it from Taiwan or Japan. If it be opposite, then we prefer to import it.

P.S. It’s good that there are a lot of bands that deal with all this bonus, limited edition and single shit. Support them!

Comment by DsssM (Anonymous) - Tuesday, November 16, 2004

Sorry, I type it wrong

P.S. It’s good that there are a lot of bands that don’t deal with all this bonus, limited edition and single shit. Support them!