What is the future for Super Deluxe editions?

I make a weekly visit to superdeluxedition.com to check out what's new. While I get that labels/artists see this as an avenue for making money off the back catalogs, I wonder how many of these are actually produced and sold. They are not cheap to make and the whole idea of physical media is akin to the survival of the dinoasaurs. Newsflash, they basically died off. I'm also concerned that when we reach a point of near 100% streaming much of what we love about these will vanish.

your thoughts?

 

CDs decline is exaggerated . They said 10 years ago it was going to die in 5 . It's still here but you might find it won't quite die like vinyl didn't . A case in point DVD is still being manufactured alongside Blu Ray. If there is nothing physical left to sale then music to a certain generation (me at least) will lose it's appeal.

 

I think they'll stick around for quite a long time because they are specialized products. While I think the prices on most of these are ridiculous and they'd sell a lot more if they pared them back a bit, I know that some of the appeal is that they have all this "stuff" in them. People are willing to fork over more for the occasional splurge like these tend to be than for a bunch of regular CDs, whose usefulness to most people has all but disappeared in the iTunes and Spotify worlds. Physical music purchases need to have something more tangible to get people to respond. The books, DVDs/Blurays, weird stupid little trinkets are fun. A regular CD simply is not - these days they're typically just a shiny disc in a cheaply made cardboard sleeve. They look and feel dispensable.

 

The problem I'm seeing with all of these super deluxe and remastered reissues is that they're really starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel with some of the artists they're choosing. Just the other day, I saw mega-deluxe box sets of Wham!, Stereo MCs, and Belinda Carlisle. Is there REALLY such a huge clamor for their albums to be remastered and packaged with all of the super deluxe bonus stuff that they are necessary? Methinks it's more about churning these out as cheaply as possible and turning a profit, however miniscule, on them before moving on.

 

bottom scraping or not...I still see a future.

 

I am a fan of combo releases...Criterion knows what they are doing. I feel a better choice than BR with a digital Ultraviolet DL or DVD with the same...for those who have yet crossed over to BR the best of both world...future proof at the moment.

 

I love the complete concert sets that are released. Sets like the Smile sessions are great too. Kind of musical historical document.

 

If it's for a album that I grew up with and loved than I'd be inclined to splurge if there was enough unreleased material to make it worth my while. Surprisingly the deluxe Led Zeppelin boxes that have been released so far seem a bit weak to me. Eric Clapton's Give Me Strength and Slowhand boxes for me both gave a good bang for the buck, so I enjoy them both.

 

So true. Eric Johnson's Venus Isle would be the ideal candidate for a super deluxe reissue. EJ has indicated that in some ways he prefers the demo versions of the VI songs to the final versions, as the demos are less belabored. I'd love for there to be a reissue with a second disc featuring a demo version of the album. Somehow I doubt it'll happen.

 

I would think Ah Via Musicom would be the one that will be released, if any, as that was his biggest seller and he was on radio and all that. I don't think any of his releases compares to that for mainstream popularity. I saw him at a club on the Tones tour, one of the best shows I've seen. I had the cd already, but was unprepared for the awesome sonic onslaught.

As far as Super Deluxe's in general, these are for the hardcore fans and they will buy these editions, so I think they will continue until they run out of stuff in the vault.

 

I imagine that they'll keep milking the big deluxe editions as much as possible in the years ahead because who knows how much longer the market will be around for these sorts of things?

 

People are still buying them. And they typically are limited production runs. So I think it will continue until they become unprofitable.

 

Perhaps super deluxe editions are more attractive to those who don't have the original CD yet and have been thinking of buying it (so you don't have to buy it again to get the extra stuff). For those that have the CD already they would have to gauge whether the extra material is worth it. For fanatics that love the album there is no stopping them. I have purchased some nice ones. The remastering is a different story, some good some bad. This forum is a good place to search that out. I don't think they will die very soon.

 

EMI before dying edited many big boxsets of many artists....most of those boxsets are still available worldwide but EMI is not.

 

yes, and also the unreleased boxes!

 

I have the 4/2 CD LZ old boxes from years back...I never cared for them really...LZ has to be in order.

 

there will always be Bear Family! great stuff no milking!

 

ok maybe a little exaggerated i agree however still a big decline. The HMV profecy is on the verge of becoming true at least in my country. (2016 the old man said).

 

I don't need marbles and coasters and such, but I'm crazy about Super Deluxe reissues.

Different strokes. Other than Physical Graffiti, I had no use at all for Led Zeppelin before the 4 box. Maybe because I have so little use for the blues and was OD'd on LZ IV , I just couldn't hear them at all until what I think of as Jimmy Page's Ultimate Zeppelin Mix Tape came along. They're now my second favorite group behind...do I have to say their names?...and I still play that set regularly. It's a terrific playlist. The first disk of box 2 actually became my favorite of the 6, and one of my most-played LZ "albums."

Still not much use for the blues hence my least 2 favorite LZ disks being the first two but I can honestly say that those 4/2 CD collections changed my (musical) life. A topic for another thread I think.

Echoing the sentiment of others, though, I'd be happier if these LZ reissues had more music on them. Packaging is always part of the fun, but surely these merit more than just 7-9 bonus tracks???

I agree, for the same "different strokes" principle. Looking through that website, I had no idea that I ever wanted a Thompson Twins rarities and remixes box, but now, I NEED it. Those kinds of things are sometimes even more appealing to me than extras for my favorite albums.

Wham sold 25 million albums. Half a percent of that would be 125,00, right? If I was a label, I'd roll the dice on that. Especially knowing that I had Thompson Twins rarities to put money in the bank.

Keep 'em coming.

 

Belinda Carlisle's sales figures are hardly bottom of the barrel either...

 

I think one factor that has not been mentioned yet is the demographic for this kind of product. I wonder what percentage of consumers buying Super Duper editions are under the age of 40? I am guessing not all that many. It's a relatively niche market aimed at those nostalgic about music on physical media (CD, vinyl or both), with more disposable income, and a nice coffee table on which to set the big boxes and their big books and paraphernalia. That's what I reckon, anyway.

 

To each his own as far as "scraping the bottom of the barrel". Some people like the music you cited. I had not heard about a Wham! deluxe box set and am now intrigued.

 

My wife and I currently have a Blu-Ray player in one room and a DVD player in three rooms. For us, it's nice to see so many movies being released in Blu-Ray/DVD combo packs. The download isn't a must-have, but it's a nice bonus. My wife downloads some movies to her phone or laptop.

For TV shows, we still buy DVDs unless the Blu-Ray version is cheap. I don't really need to watch a sitcom in HD.

 

I have no idea how deluxe box sets are selling, but I have bought and enjoyed many of them. Like anything else, not all of them appeal to me. Some offer more than I need of a particular artist or album, but I can usually turn to a scaled-back version (i.e., two- or three-disc set). Here's hoping the labels keep turning them out (with hi-rez discs and good mastering).

 

Look closely and you'll find that these are not "mega-deluxe box sets" at all: the Wham! release is a single CD, and the recent Stereo MCs and Belinda Carlisle sets are one of those budget (paper sleeve) multi album boxes. Nothing deluxe about them.

As for "do they sell at all?" – if you look beyond the SuperdeluxeEdition site, you'll find that there are music genres (like prog and metal) where virtually every major release comes in an additional deluxe edition. Which often is sold out immediately (and not only to people around 40…).