ARE MUSIC EXCLUSIVES GETTING OUTTA CONTROL?

[JumpinJack AJ]

Everyone on this board loves music. We've all come here cuz we have love for JJ+FP. And we are from all over the world, different ages, different races, from different lifestyles with different tastes in music.

Everyone knows i love music. Hip-Hop is my favorite genre partly cuz i grew up feeling that it waz my music and partly cuz it represents alot my ideas and comes from a place i come from. R-N-B is my 2nd fav kinda music, and also got love for reggae, club music, jazz, pop, and acoustic. Most people know i have thousands of CDs (some legendary...some not 2 legendary) and i definitly love remixes and b-sides.

Well, these days, many stores hook up with record labels 2 get an exclusive version of an album 2 get the loyal fans 2 shop their way...even when their price isn't the best. That idea makes sense...but it's been getting pretty crazy this year. Early in the summer, India.Arie dropped her new album. India.Arie is an amazing artist. I picked up her album at Target because it came with a bonus track and a CD with the making of her "I Am Not My Hair" video. Then i was shopping at Circuit City and looked at the album because they had an "exclusive" sticker on it. CC's version had ANOTHER bonus track. Since i fell in love with the album the way i did, i figured it would be well worth getting this version 2...so i did...ha ha. Then i waz in Wal-Mart and saw their version came with a BET Official DVD that waz an hour long, loaded with interviews, live performances, and music videos. And yeah, i got that 2. However, after busting Wal-Mart's CD/DVD combo open, i kept the CD sealed and returned it for the money...keeping the DVD...ha ha (i know, i'm sooo wrong).

Anyways, Jessica Simpson dropped her album last week and CC had a bonus track. Then i saw Best Buy had a bonus DVD, then i saw K-Mart had a JS magnet, and Wal-Mart had ANOTHER bonus track. Beyonce's album at CC has a bonus track and Wal-Mart has an hour long BET Official DVD. Instead of stores trying 2 one-up the others 2 get more sales, it looks like the record companies are now pimpin' the fans by trying 2 make the loyal fans buy 2, 3, and 4 copies of their artists albums. And since sales prices the 1st week they come out are usually the best, the crazy fans are gonna get them all the 1st week the album comes out.

I don't know...i haven't noticed anyone on this board going after all the bonus stuff like i do for certain artists. But i wanted 2 know if anyone else finds themselves struggling 2 deside where 2 get and album and if record companies are starting 2 take advantage of the loyal fans who go out buying albums and not downloading stuff.

[bigted]

Well record sales are down and record companies are trying to do anything to get people to go out and buy the albums, it's really unfair for the fans though but I guess if I really like the artist I might buy another album for bonus materials to support, get a good buy on ebay or something for it, but if I'm not really a fan of the artist then one copy's good enough whether it has bonus materials or not

[JumpinJack AJ]

Yeah, but i'm just imaging buying 20 different version of FP's next album just 2 get all the bonus material...ha ha. I just think it's getting outta hand.

[mfuqua23]

Yeah AJ, I agree with you. It is getting outta hand. I've never got something with extra stuff after the 1st one came out. The last cd I got that had extra was Talib Kweli's "Right About Now" with the 4 track bonus disc. And that was 1st time around. I can just imagine if Will made all of his "Lost + Found" material that he did exclusive. We'd probably have 5 full cds on the shelves along with the original. Will just did, a lil bit here and a lil bit there. I look at exclusive stuff pretty much the same way Ted does.

[Turntable]

Over here stuff like tht aint happening. Every store sells the same copy over here.

[Schnazz]

Maybe I'm just not understanding something, but albums are starting to really seem like a rip off. With people able to do a lot of their recording on personal computers these days, studio time can't be very expensive at all. I don't watch a lot of videos any more, but most of the ones I do see look as though they could have been created for next to nothing. While Party Starter may have cost a mint, Kick Push couldn't have cost much at all to create. Manufactoring and distribution must be dirt cheap as well, at most a dime per disc, both online and physical. I guess ads are still expensive, but it seems like ads are made only for big artists anyway, so the actual cost per disc should still be low. All that with the stories of middle of the road artists not making jack, I would think that it only costs $1-$2 per disc to the record companies. It seems like a big scam to get product from artists for next to nothing, over charge consumers for it, and have the money people making tons of cash.

[WesSyde]

for me its all about the money. i check Circuit City, Best Buy, Target, etc to see who has the lowest price. most of the time, i dont have time to pop in the bonus disc anyways. if it has bonus stuff in it than thats cool, but i try not to stress out about. unless its an artist that im really into, i usually dont feel compelled to own every single song theyve done.

[TopDawg14]

The music industry is not the only culprit in this mess. The movie industry is just as, if not more guilty. For instance, I bought the original Star Wars trilogy. Then they "remixed" it and put it out on DVD. Now they're redoing it again. The same went for the following movies: The Usual Suspects, Die Hard Trilogy, Lethal Weapon 1-4 and JFK just to name a few. Heck they even re-released the Chicago Bulls' championship videos with all sorts of extra features(yes, I went and bought the box set - I'm a Bulls fan).

It's basically like Ted said; the industry is looking for any way to get you to buy the product.