Why So Many Box Sets?

Because you have to milk the cow before she dies.

 

I have a **** ton of non classical and non jazz CD and vinyl box sets dating back to their earliest ...Bob Dylan's Biograph was my first bought new in 85. The rush to push music entertainment back to its lowest common denominator, the song, has pushed compiled and deluxe editions out of the common lexicon. It is our memory of the pre download format that I believe drives our desires more than nostalgia. Our desire is going to become increasingly important after we're gone because had we not pushed the SDE forward massive amounts of content would likely be lost/squandered. That said, do we need all 100 plus takes of O-Bla-di O-bla-da in the public domain for us to appreciate it appropriately, probably not.

 

..that too

 

Just reflecting that my daughter, who will inherit my box sets, has never owned or played a CD in her life, and likely never will!

 

Who’s complaining?
God Bless Feel Flows!

 

There is a dude(Paul, forget his last name) from England,, who runs a website dedicated to Super Deluxe Box Sets, so he is counting on Music Fans buying these Deluxe Box Sets released every year.

 

Paul Sinclair. www.superdeluxeedition.com

 

If you go back 25 or so years, box sets tended to be career retrospectives. The concept of one album as a super duper mega ultra box is still a relatively new concept.

It's more than just middle aged guys, who are (allegedly) flush with cash. Often, at least one Blu Ray is dangled, which isn't available as a standalone. That whets the audiophile apetitite.

From personal perspective, am looking forward to the Stones - Tattoo You 40th, Robert Fripp - Exposures and it's getting close to the end, unless something truly exceptional comes up next year. Springsteen really should deal with BITUSA. Otherwise, bit as overzealous as a lot of members of this forum about the concept.

 

Yeah, that is it. I check out his website every few weeks, but usually too late on announcement of deals for older Box Sets that he lists.

 

I'm all for them. Most of them (note that I said "most") are an incredible deal for what you're getting. And I'm all for hearing live shows, demos, outtakes, alternate versions of songs I like (especially if I've heard said songs 1,000 times)

So bring 'em on!

 

It just goes to show, that for all the greatness of streaming, the fidelity it may offer, the convenience it may offer, the space it may save... people like tangible things. Even if that tangible thing produces something auditory.

 

Only for people over 40 years old(or over 50) for the most part.

 

Trying to extract every last dollar from the boomer market before...that market no longer exists?

 

Old music is almost as popular as modern music these days. Just look at all the greatest hits reunion artists at festivals these days. There are hardly any new artists coming through anymore, so the record companies are dining out on the old music.

 

it's all about timing and money--and the intersection of the two.

box-sets are almost always for completists and/or anniversaries of select bands/albums, and given that you have to be around for quite awhile to generate enough material for a box-set to even be possible, the consumer/audience for these has also aged into more of a place financially during those years to have more disposable income.

my box-sets/deluxe editions are from bands that have been around for a healthy amount of time and are doing re-issues or celebrating anniversaries of selected albums. the prince/sign o' the times box-set from last year being a prime example--i waited to upgrade my copy until the box-set came out because i knew it was due for a remaster--when i got the news about the box-set i just jumped in on that because it's one of my favorite albums. and i had the resources to get the super deluxe--absolutely zero regrets!

 

I think it's about perceived value and viewing the box set as a valuable "object."

A standard CD sitting in a standard cold jewel box with just a booklet offers very little to the 21st-century consumer who is thinking "Should I just stream/download this?"

But a multi-CD box set with, say, a DVD and a DVD-A thrown in with a comprehensive booklet with vivid color pics and in-depth liner notes in a flashy package?

All of the sudden the "wholeness" and flash of the product outweighs just the music and the tracks you can listen to on Spotify or some such.

 

Continuing to be amazed at the powerful impulse to denigrate and diminish the value and pleasure of box sets. Some kind of potent defensive psychology at work in the need to impugn their worth and find disreputable, unpleasant motives on all sides.

 

I wouldn't be without The Who Sell Out and Zappa Hot Rats Sessions boxes for anything. They're two of the best recent ones.

I only own one of the mega ones - Miles' Complete Columbia Album Collection. On a per disc basis, it was fairly cheap, and the packaging is nice and compact. As far as I can tell, everything was mastered with some care too.

Some of them do leave me scratching my head, like Yes Union Live 30. Most Yes fans aren't that fond of the Union album, and some (all??) of the shows are from audience recordings, so why does it exist at all?

 

See what you mean, but the individual characteristics of a particular release are certainly open to criticism/discussion.
But the "just for old coots with money" or $$$, or "just for pathetic completists" does become tiresome, IMO. Of course they want to make $$, otherwise they wouldn't be made.

 

Old men like me (81+) still prefer physical releases - you know something you can hold in your hand and you can later forward to your kids or grand kids. Personally do have reservations to pay money for streaming only releases and in fact I only did so once in the past for the gorgeous Webb Pierce - Hundred Year Webb release from andmorebears. I would buy a physical release immediately and it looks like that Richard Weize is seriously considering to listen to its customers.

 

It’s got a bit too silly lately. I cite the latest uber-deluxe boxes of Jethro Tull’s ‘This Was’, The Who ‘Sell Out’ and Eric Clapton’s self-titled album as cases where we’d already had the vast majority of outtakes, alternative/mono mixes or whatever on earlier, less-deluxe but still sumptuous, anniversary releases. It makes me wonder what we’ll see in another ten years - that’s if we’re lucky to be alive that long. I’m sick and tired of it but, what the hell, I’ve got more than enough music to see me through retirement and there are still some fine acts out there making music that I want to hear and buy first time around.

 

Yes.

I've only bought a handful of box sets... Soundgarden, Pink Floyd, and Fleetwood Mac..and when listening to some of the songs such as the alternate version of Have A Cigar or Wish You Were Here, Take 2 of Dreams, or Kristi, I wonder why in the hell we couldn't hear this material 20-30+ years ago.


While I do wish this material had come out back then, who would have actually bought a $15-$20 CD of outtakes back in the day? How many 16 year old Metallica fans would spend their allowance money on take 53 of Through the Never?!?

It is different this time.

The world of the 20th century is in the process of being wrapped up. The sand in the hourglass is running out.

Time for the vaults to be liquidated and make one last bundle of cash from the fans before both fan and artist are dead.

After that.... its diminishing returns from there on out... to the point where in the next couple decades, things our generations considered iconic, timeless, etc will be a fading memory raging against the dying of the light and becoming a mere footnote in the history books.

Same here... although I don't really care about any trinkets in these box sets. I'm only interested in the material I haven't heard before.

I love listening to the various demos, alt mixes, etc of my favorite artists...hear the progression of the tracks. Yeah some of the stuff is filler but there's also plenty of gold dispersed throughout the sets.

This is me.

4-5 years ago I went ahead and got a subscription to Rhapsody. After a couple weeks or so, I realized that I was just listening to music I already own so I dumped it.

Other than YouTube, I don't use any of these various platforms.

 

I'd say that box sets aimed at an older demographic are nothing new. Reader's Digest anyone? ... Or TimeLife? ...

But now instead of "The Best of Benny Goodman," the material going into box sets is far more album specific (and there is more unreleased material available to chose from). The reason box sets might seem "new" to some people here I would think is because they are passing into an older demographic (which seems to be the target market for box sets) and so is the music they consume. Just my $.10.

 

E equals MC squared.

What appeals to me most about this trend is, so many artists are commissioning it themselves, because they have ownership of their catalogs. I like to think Robert Fripp started this trend, from the first time he started talking about labels being "dinosaurs", and the artist being the, "small, mobile, intelligent unit" in the late-'70s.

Naturally, the bigger media companies stole and ran with the idea, and in many cases just started jamming things into the box one fan might want, but would have to pay for something else he didn't need or want, to get it. At a premium price, of course.

I'd seen so many audiophiles bi*ching about "why the surround mix when all we want is the hi-res"...to be followed by, "all I'm interested in the surround mix, I'm satisfied with my original copy otherwise". The reality here was, if you didn't appeal to both groups of interested customers, you wouldn't have the critical mass needed to justify producing the product.

But I think they take it too far when they start accompanying a surround mix with a 180kg LP, not that these are not valid options, but...most customers are more interested in one than the other, historically. So that's too much bang for too much buck.

 

New way ? Box sets on CD have been around for over thirty years. The last 5-10 years vinyl boxes have been added to the mix.