As I bought my copy of The Arcade Fire’s ‘Neon Bible’ today (read Kentuckys thoughts elsewhere on this page…), I sat for a moment contemplating whether I wanted the regular version or the more expensive ‘deluxe version’. I pondered this for some time and it got me thinking about the value of these ‘purchase incentives’.
The digital age has ushered in a new way of consuming your media, one that is totally devoid of a medium. The digital download has provided a legitimate way of getting to the music without any packaging. People have being doing this since the compact cassette provided a simple way of copying your friends LP’s. So one way for music companies to this is through fancy packaging. I’m not a big fan of fancy packaging for CD’s, it frequently wont fit into CD racks and is easier to damage than a jewel case. Bonus booklets are just too small to give me any real enjoyment and if they have posters then they have been folded so small they are impossible to unfold smoothly. If I want fancy packaging, I’ll buy it on vinyl.
The other way is through the ‘includes bonus track’ sticker. Bonus tracks are an interesting beast. If you really enjoy an album then why wouldn’t you want more of it? An extra track or two might add a reason to purchase the album if you’re already a fan of the band. Unfortunately there is a reason a lot of bonus tracks don’t make the album. Some of them clash with the other songs, some just plain out suck. On the whole they are disrupting to the concept of an album being a homogenous work.
Most albums are well thought out in terms on content and mood, even if not uniting behind some unifying theme. Considerable time will be spent choosing a running order that keeps the momentum going and the listener listening. Then along comes Mr Bonus Track and spoils the effort, like the uncle who wasn’t asked to tell saucy anecdotes at the wedding but does anyway. Even though they are after the album has finished and therefore can be stopped, quite frequently we will let the disc will play on. This isn’t such a problem on vinyl, such as the vinyl release of Death Cab for Cutie’s Plans. In this case the bonus track is on a separate side to the last third of the album and you make a conscious choice to listen to it when you flip the disc over. This is contrasted by the CD version of the same bands ‘The Photo Album’ in which the bonus tracks follow straight after the album.
Bonus tracks fall into a couple of categories. The first is the extra track; something that would have probably shown up as a b-side somewhere along the line, but probably wasn’t even good enough for that. The next is the live version. Sometimes its a track off the album, which can be jarring, as you already heard that song a little while ago, sometimes, its a previous single. The next is song off another EP or album. When I bought ‘Change’ by The Dismemberment Plan It included a couple of extra songs including ‘what do you want me to say?’ from the previous album, ‘Emergency and I’. This was great as I really liked the song and didn’t already own it, but if I had bought the previous album it would have been redundant.
That’s not to say I don’t like bonus material. I like getting more for my money, but I prefer to see the bonus tracks put onto a second disc. CD’s don’t cost a lot to produce, especially when made in volume, so you should be getting something extra for your dollars. This way the bonus material can be played at leisure, as an adjunct to the album or listened to separately. I like mini-albums that are culled from the same session, as Radioheads ‘Amensiac’ was to ‘Kid A’ or Modest Mouses’ ‘Everywhere and his Nasty Parlour Tricks’ was to ‘The Moon and Antarctica’. These were full price releases alongside their brethren, but could have been awesome bonus discs. In all, extra content should not detract from the main listen. A good entrée’ doesn’t overshadow a main course.
As an adjunct, I realise the version of Neon bible I should have bought was actually the Vinyl release, which comes with a free code to download a digital copy (one of the reasons I buy CD’s is the ease of transferring it to a digital medium). Its a best of both worlds scenario for someone like me who loves their vinyl but still embraces the digital life. I’ve seen a number of labels offering this, but generally only in the states. C’mon guys, start shipping down under.
