If there are any readers of The Second Disc from outside America, I'd like you to do us a favor. Go to iTunes or Amazon and download the bonus tracks included on the digital versions of the a-ha deluxe reissues. And enjoy them, please. Because American fans cannot.
Not long after the release of the Web-exclusive deluxe editions of Hunting High and Low and Scoundrel Days, a-ha's official site announced that the digital editions of each title would include four additional bonus tracks, including some vinyl-only remixes and more unreleased demos. Graciously, the story said "Rhino.com (USA) will have both Deluxe Editions available digitally this week, complete with bonus tracks, which will be available a la carte."
However, nearly a month after that promise, there's been no movement. The reissues were only made available digitally this week through Rhino.com, but no bonus tracks are to be found. After inquiring with Rhino, they sent The Second Disc a message: "We hope to have these tracks available soon. Please stay tuned to www.rhino.com (and sign up for the newsletter on the front page of the site) for any developments."
Fans of old and new music have to go through this a lot. The label will release an extra track or two with a digital version of a record as an incentive to buy the record instead of downloading. But for people willing to pay for physical copies, this is hard to deal with. The tracks are rarely able to be downloaded on their own, and no self-respecting fan would pay another $10 for one track if they've already bought the proper physical album for about the same price. This looks even more shortsighted on the catalogue side of things, where most fans invest in physical media entirely, and rightly feel a bit slighted if a few extra tracks are going to be available digitally. (We can see a storm brewing should the digital bonus tracks on the upcoming Apple Records reissues not be made available individually.)
We ask you, dear reader: how do you view the seemingly necessary evils that are digital bonus tracks? How would you alter their place in the music-buying process if you could?
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2010 two CD collection from the Norwegian Pop trio. After nine albums, an iconic music video, and sales of more than 36 million worldwide, 2010 celebrates a-ha’s 25th anniversary and final year together. The album includes 38 a-Ha favorites including ‘Take On Me’, ‘The Sun Always Shines On TV’, ‘Cry Wolf’ and ‘Velvet’ plus the brand new track ‘Butterfly, Butterfly (The Last Hurrah)’.
Track List:
CD1
01. Take On Me
02. The Blue Sky
03. The Sun Always Shines On TV
04. Train Of Thought (7remix)
05. Hunting High And Low (7remix)
06. Ive Been Losing You
07. Scoundrel Days
08. The Swing Of Things
09. Cry Wolf
10. Manhattan Skyline (Edit Version)
11. The Living Daylights
12. Stay On These Roads
13. Touchy! (UK DJ Edit)
14. Theres Never A Forever Thing
15. You Are The One (7remix)
16. The Blood That Moves The Body (Two-Time Gun Remix)
17. Crying In The Rain
18. Early Morning
19. Slender Frame
20. I Call Your Name
CD2
01. Move To Memphis (Single Version)
02. Dark Is The Night For All
03. Cold As Stone (Re-Mix)
04. Angel In The Snow (Edit)
05. Shapes That Go Together
06. Summer Moved On
07. Minor Earth Major Sky (Nivens Radio Edit)
08. The Sun Never Shone That Day (Radio Edit)
09. Velvet
10. Forever Not Yours
11. Lifelines
12. Did Anyone Approach You?
13. Celice
14. Analogue
15. Cosy Prisons (Radio Mix)
16. Foot Of The Mountain
17. Nothing Is Keeping You Here (Single Remix)
18. Shadowside (Single Edit)
19. Butterfly, Butterfly (The Last Hurrah)
If I'm paying for the album, I should get all the material. Preferably on the disc itself, but if space is limited, then give me a code so I can download the digital-only tracks. There's absolutely no reason fans should be punished for opting to go with the physical release.
Besides, a physical copy involves manufacturing costs that the digital version doesn't--so wouldn't selling physical copies be top priority to win back that investment? I want fans to be able to get all the tracks they want in their preferred format, but the vindictive part of me would love to see a label include bonus tracks on a physical version of the album only.
As a longtime collector of imports, what annoys me is when a particular track is made available through iTunes only in certain countries.
I'd love to hear the reasoning of the record company for this one. Giving bonus tracks for the DD but not the cd makes no sense.
There IS room on the CDs for the bonus tracks, however, according to someone directly involved with the project, this is why the extra bonus tracks weren't included on the CDs:
"...Yes, there was space left on CD1. My take on this (if you will excuse the pun) is that there has to be a balance struck between the casual fan who wants a sound upgrade and a few bonuses and the diehard who wants every fart and cough the band put on tape.
"If those bonus tracks had been put on CD1, the set would have looked messy and desperate. Plus, how many versions of [Take on Me] can you bear listening to in one session? ...Combining HHAL and SD on the original format = 20 tracks. Now, it's 68 tracks. I call that value for money." http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=215726&page=4
I think the "messy and desperate" argument actually makes sense here... there are already TWENTY SEVEN bonus tracks on the first a-ha album alone, and cramming on an additional four doesn't necessarily make it better.
HOWEVER, it's completely lame for Rhino to take pre-orders for the CDs, ship the CDs, and THEN offer up the bonus tracks as "album only" downloads. At least they should offer them individually, in lossless quality.
I don't buy it (no pun intended). It's not like this is a budget reissue; it's premium content and the price most definitely reflects that.
Even if I'm just a casual fan of an artist and I buy a greatest hits album or a reissue of their most popular album, by all means fill up the disc and use all the space you can. Who looks at a reissue tracklist and goes, "Well, I would buy this album, but there are just too many bonus tracks for my taste!"?
They should rather offer a code with those deluxe editions that one can download those tracks for free when buying the original album.
If they only offer them with a bundle, it is a pure rip-off and kick in the ... for everyone who bought the cd. Especially as those reissues are rather fan thing than for mass consumption + nearly all prefer to buy the superior real thing rather than just annoying mp3. Could be an industry thing to kill the cd market totally, which won't end in people buying the download package instead, though...
If you're desperate to get the bonus tracks (as I was for the Take On Me instrumental), I googled and came up with this site. I PAID by paypal and downloaded here from the states. It's a UK site and they might realize a licensing problem before long. On rare occasions, I've lucked out with US I-tunes or 7digital.com having an import available before they remove it from their US-sites. Anyway it costs 5.99 to subscribe Rhapsody-style or 3.99 for 1 track UK pounds. Play around with the site, there's lots of stuff you can't normally buy in the states. Here's the link below and you can go from there.
http://web2txt.co.uk/a-ha-take-on-me-instrumental-mix-bonus-track-mp3-download-4739-10010738/