2021's David Bowie box set 5 (Speculation Thread)*

I think the Storytellers vinyl is good news, it was on an earlier wishlist of mine from way back in the mists of this thread

Perhaps (realistically) Parlophone realizes that the boxes from this point on are just not going to sell in anything like the same numbers, so they are scaling back the marketing budget and production runs. No point hanging a whole big push for Xmas market around relatively obscure albums in the catalogue. Do a nice job on the comprehensive sets, get everything back in print, then move on

 

I am getting slightly annoyed now. As a father of 3 with a mortgage I’m unable to casually splash out £200 on a single purchase, so I have been saving for Box Set #5. If I hadn’t been, I would have probably spent the money I’m putting aside on records. Almost certainly, I’d have bought at least one of the 7’’ sets but I sat them out and now the compulsion to own them has faded. The same is likely to happen with VH1 storytellers.

If Parlophone have decided not to release this set without announcing it, they’ll have needlessly done themselves out of quite a bit of money from people like me.

 

Whoops. After I tossed out my Springsteen vinyl, I was informed that some babies went down with the bathwater there. In the back of my mind, I was thinking that anybody who really wanted Springsteen pieces (OR LKJ) had surely already accomplished their missions.

Not that it's a realistic dream anymore anyways, but it's probably good that I never opened a record store.

 

I may have to stake out trash bins in Philadelphia.

 

Jeez - the Devil hates a vacuum, huh?

 

I was thinking the same!

 

I see no reason (yet) to worry about the cancellation of the box set series.

The VH1 set probably does mean that the box will be held back to November. But the box's non-appearance in September this year probably has much more to do with the Abbey Road set coming out then (on the same record label - why would they want to compete with themselves for sales/press attention?) so rather than having the Beatles stealing Bowie's thunder, they'll wait for the Beatles buzz to die down a bit. Why do the Beatles get a late Sep release date rather than Bowie? Because Abbey Road was released in late Sept 69 making it nearly an exact (almost to the day) 50 year anniversary release.

I wouldn't even think about starting to worry until the end of the first week of October about the boxes not continuing, and if we still haven't gotten the announcement by two weeks after the Beatles release and about the same time as the VH1 Bowie album comes out) I think that would be a very good time to start worrying!

I know that's when I'm planning to start.

Until then I'm pretty much in a "it'll happen when it happens" mindset. Sure I'm mildly annoyed about the delay in the announcement relative to when we've come to expect it with the previous boxes. But do I think the non-announcement (so far) is any indication that the box series is cancelled? Not at all - not yet anyway.

 

Apart from members on here in half of the other threads and some people who still read music magazines who's interested in the Beatles ? And Warner Music /Parlo are big boys who should be equipped to market both simultaneously.
The Vh1 Storytellers vinyl may not get boxed because MTV has the copyright.

 

The Beatles are on Universal, not Warner Music/Parlo.

 

1 - Do you believe the number of Bowie fans is greater than the number of Beatles fans?

2 - Do you believe the number of Bowie fans interested in this box is greater than the number of Beatles fans interested in the Beatles box?

3 - Do you believe that there isn't overlapping fanbases who would be interested in both boxes?

4 - Do you believe that the majority of those people will have no problem laying down the several hundred dollars in cost to purchase both (at the same time or even within a reasonably short timeframe)?

5 - Do you really think the people that (if they were released at the same time) would need to choose between them due to cost would definitely buy the other one in a short amount of time later - rather than purchase other things that get released in the weeks after these boxes? (Remember, there's a massive number of things that get released - including quite a few huge expensive multi-disc boxes - aimed at GenXers and boomers between Sep to Nov every year).

6 - Of course Parlophone have the ability to market two items at once - but do the consumers all have the money to purchase both at once?. What's the point of getting fans excited about two big expensive items at the same time for release at the same time when the vast majority of those consumers won't have the ability to buy both at the same time (or even within say a month or two in a lot of cases). In most cases one of them will be bought and the other one semi-forgotten by most people who would have been interested in both. As far as marketing, I suppose they could market both for twice as long to keep the people who could only afford one reminded that the other one exists so that they keep it in mind to purchase later. Or they could do what makes sense which is market/release one and then market/release the other, increasing the chances that people who want both will be able to plan/budget to get both within say a month of each one being released.

 

I think a lot of people interested in buying the Bowie box will also be thinking of buying the expected Pink Floyd Later Years box, so if you throw in Abbey Road as well some hard choices will need to be made as all three will be costly, especially Floyd.

 

The argument that the Abbey Road set might be the reason for the delay I find hard to believe, for the same reason people always speculate that Beatles and solo Beatles product won’t be released close to each other for fear of cannibalizing sales, when year after year we see them do just that to no negative effect.The most recent example being last year:
Sept-New McCartney studio album, Oct-Lennon Imagine reissue in various formats including box set, Nov- White Album box set, Dec- Wings Wild Life and Red Rose Speedway deluxe box sets and various formats. These all came out within a matter of weeks of each other and smack in the middle of all that was the new Bowie box. I was able to get all of them luckily, even got a great deal on Amazon for the Bowie vinyl set which was on sale for less then 150 for a few days. So I wouldn’t blame the new Abbey Road set for being the reason we haven’t heard anything about a new Bowie box just yet. The evidence doesn’t support it.
Also since when do record companies give a damn about consumers having to make tough choices?

 

That's one per month - which is not the same thing as (what people here have complained about) that Bowie's 5th box is not being released at about the same time as the previous 4 boxes were (late September/early Oct). Abbey Road gets (and I suppose deserves) that release date since that's the anniversary of the original 1969 release date (almost exactly - its only out by a couple days). I never said Bowie wouldn't be coming out within a month to a month & a half of that (by mid-Nov). In fact I AM saying that Bowie most likely will get pushed to mid Nov - which funny enough flips last years Bowie vs Beatles release dates. Last year Bowie came out about a month to a month and a half earlier than the Beatles, with the White Album getting released close to its original release date in November.

 

When they realize that if they space the release dates out a bit (like not putting out Bowie and the Beatles at the same time - both in late September) so that consumers won't have to make the tough choice between them, it will ultimately boost the record company's profits - duh!

 

So no time soon then, based on the deluge of box sets and special editions that always seem to get released at the end of the year...

 

Well it does make sense to put out more stuff near the end of the year to take advantage of the time of year when people are in the stores en masse anyway. The pre-Christmas buying season in general and Black Friday in November in particular (which is the biggest shopping day of the year in the US).

They space things out between August, when things begin to ramp up to (in my experience) the last week in September when the rate of releases peak, continue to stay high, and then peak again the last week of October, then begin to decline, getting back to normal by mid Dec.

Of course there's lots of other big releases scattered throughout the year. Also in my experience, though there's a massive amount of stuff coming out late Sept and late Oct, its rarely a massive amount of stuff by any one label - it seems to me that any one label will try to put at least couple weeks between their big name releases - so I find the fact that Bowie and the Beatles are not coming out on the same day in late September to be absolutely logical. Even competing labels (it seems to me - in my experience when looking at upcoming release dates over the years) will try not to conflict as far as putting out big expensive items by two different acts who very likely share the larger portion of their fanbases.

As an example - a big Beatles box is far more likely to get released the same day as a big King Crimson box than on the same day as a big 60s era Rolling Stones box or a big Who box.

The labels know what they're doing - well as far as scheduling releases I mean - outside of that they're pretty clueless.

 

Does anyone know when Mojo publishes their magazine. The Oct issue is out - I don't know exactly when it came out but it has a big Abbey Road feature talking about the box. I predict the Nov issue to have a (glowing) review of the Abbey Road box.

I also predict that in the Nov issue they are almost certainly going to have a big feature article about Bowie promoting the box and focusing on the era covered by the box, followed in the Dec issue by a (glowing) review of his box.

So my point is that an announcement is bound to come before the Nov issue of Mojo (I picked Mojo since I read it - this really applies to any music magazine you can think of who would make a big deal out of a Bowie boxset release) as the record company are not likely to let themselves get scooped by a magazine publishing release date/content details before they do.

I suppose you could push my theory back a month if they're planning on releasing the Bowie box later than mid November.

 

Or the Feature Article and Review you suggest for Bowie in Nov/Dec Music Magazine(Mojo, Q, Uncut, etc.) will go to Pink Floyd-The Later Years Box set instead of Bowie?

I am ok, if they even skip a year for the Bowie Box Sets and resume next Fall(2020) or just get a smaller Tin Machine Box Set in the next 6 Months, as would be easier on my Music Budget, as I already plan to buy the Pink Floyd Later Years, The CURE Concert BluRay/CDs Box Set, The Doors-a Soft Parade 50th Anniversary. Will probably put off buying Abbey Road Box Set, as not urgent and waited 5-6 months to buy the Sgt. Peppers Deluxe Box Set, and not liking enough of the Songs on The White Album, only bought the 2 CD Set(with the Esher Songs).

Think there is one other Box Set I might consider being The Kinks 'Arthur', but I still have not bought last year's Village Green Box Set and that is my Favorite Kinks Album, but these Box Sets based on 1 Album are just getting ridiculous in price. I did break down to buy the 'OKNOTOK' Box Set, but 'OK Computer' is my #1 All Time Favorite Album(and had no idea that the 17-18 Mini Discs Leaks would become available a few months ago).

 

Well there's usually a few (3 or 4) fairly big feature articles per issue (though not necessarily all equally big/as many pages and obviously only one of them can get the magazine cover). I'm not sure if Floyd would get the cover since its the post-Wall three man Floyd era that their box will cover - hardly their prime era/newstand sale-bait. Of course the 90s wasn't Bowie's prime era either, but he has the added benefit of being dead, and the era his box would cover would probably hold more interest for a long article (he did a lot in those few years - early 90s) as opposed to what a Floyd article of that era would have to cover - two studio albums and two live albums in a decade - and The Endless River I guess, 2 decades later (beyond that what else is there to talk about - other than rehashing the Floyd/Waters warfare of the time).

Anyway I'm sure not every magazine would go with the same artist on their cover, though I'm also sure they'll all have articles of some size as well as record reviews of everything big that's coming out.

And in all cases I doubt any record company would let any of those magazines be the first to announce their releases - before they themselves announce.

 

I wonder if he would agree?

 

Well, they haven't seemed to realize that to date because I remember the box set fall of 2018 and the correlated fall of my bank account balance clearly:

Bowie LTA - Oct
REM BBC - Oct
Hendrix Electric Ladyland 50th - Nov
Police Every Move you Make - Nov
Petty American Treasure - Nov
Eagles Legacy - Nov
Creedence Studios - Nov
Beatles White - Nov
Aretha Atlantic - Dec
King Crimson 69-72 - Dec

And those are only the ones I purchased and doesn't include the mega classical boxes and other "deluxe" or "limited" editions of LPs I bought at the same time. I'm sure there are more.
10 big ticket box sets in about an 8 weeks doesn't speak much to the record companies looking to space things out for the benefit of our wallets. They'll pump this stuff out as fast as they can while the market is hot and most of us will keep buying it as quickly as they produce it. I'm not going to try to get into the minds of all those involved in putting all together and getting the next Bowie box announced/released, but I'm fairly confident that it'll be out in the fall cuz there's money to be made!

 

This thread is realls starting to enter conspiracy level...

I can assure you that all these other releases have absoultely nothing to do with the delay of the box set.

The Space Oddity/Moon Landing Anniversary is the only reason I can accept.

I know that we all really hope to hear something the set soon - but it is getting a bit too far.

 

Soon there’ll be nothing left to release.

he might. ‘Soon i’ll be free....’

 

So what do you think the explanation is?

 

A voice of reason! While I have speculated about the contract status with the label, I do believe you are correct. There has been a lot of Bowie product since the last box so it makes sense that the market isn't glutted with releases. Have to give them a bit of time to run their course before going on to the next one. I'm still confident we'll get a box this year but it will be closer to the holiday shopping season.