Grateful Dead Dave's Picks 2020 Subscriptions

I wasn't aware this was their stance. I don't mind it. I mean, attack me as the millionaire wealth hoarder I'm not, or the Deadhead I claim to be, the bonus disc remains bonus-y.

If you want the bonus disc, subscribe. That's how it works right now. It was $109.23 if you hit the early bird this year. That's $8.40 a CD. Most multi-disc set average much higher than that, Zappa comes immediately to mind.

 

Yeah, but with Zappa, you get a Halloween costume and board game.

 

The mechanical Kool-aid?

 

Another weird thing about their commitment to the "bonus disc" bit is that it's added to just one release each year. Do they really believe that people wouldn't subscribe, or their supply for the year wouldn't sell out, if not for the promise of one disc of excerpted highlights added to a mystery show in the Spring? Too weird, tooo weird. At least they're not carving out parts of the primary show to put on the "bonus disc" anymore, but it's still a disservice to the fans, and to the music, as well. There's no good reason for it.

 

I believe that the bonus disc drives sales of subscriptions. Tons of people on the fence will automatically subscribe knowing the bonus disc is usually great. Otherwise people would just wait and buy a la carte.

 

na the fact you save 40% (actually 140% if you decided to get one on ebay) and don't have to worry about not getting a copy because they were selling out in minutes. that's what fuels subscriptions.

 

That definitely helps too.

I think y'all should understand that the opposite of limited bonus disc is not unlimited bonus disc but no bonus disc. That's the fundamental flaw of the arguments of all the haters.

 

How about, bear with me here, they just make the "bonus disc" part of the standard release, which can also be part of subsequent reissues?

One still might feel like a disc of excerpts from an adjacent show is kind of lame. Dick himself said that he preferred to release whole shows, rather than "highlights." But a lot of people who buy the sets might still like it if one set each year had an extra disc, included for anyone who ever buys it. Why not?

They don't really need the exclusive "bonus" to drive subscriptions. Just the discount should appeal to most fans who want to buy in, and then the limited supply that sells out on day of release takes care of the rest (if only because the flippers see an obvious goldmine). All the exclusive does is create an immediate and expensive black market. But they must realize this is the result of their business model. Evidently, they don't care, which is disappointing. It's sad to see Deadheads take up the "as long as I've got mine, I don't care about the problems, either; they've gotta make a buck, somehow" attitude, as well.

 

Making it standard is not what would happen, for the same reason that three of the releases a year don't have a bonus disc.

 

I'll leave it off the board. PM me if you're curious.

 

true. I probably would have not subscribed this year if it wasn't for this show.

 

Why don't the people upset about the bonus disc just download it from the internet?

 

because then they wouldn’t have anything to complain about on the internet

 

Free shipping and no hassles with ordering make the subscription automatic for me.
At this point, my year in music spending is the Dave’s subscription, a family plan for Amazon music, whatever Dylan releases and maybe 1-2 box sets.

 

It's a fair hypothesis, but I do believe that the bonus disc is far more the driver in subscriptions than is the ~$10 discount and free shipping. It certainly is for me.

And yet he did, and they are among the best vault releases. IMO, it's lame to think that a disc of excerpts from an adjacent show is kind of lame. Good music is good music. If one absolutely cannot tolerate curated releases, then spare us your obsession and fix it yourself (and certainly then don't grouse about too many Me & My Uncles or Look Like Rains or the like). As stated many times, most or all of this is available on line through various sources. I've long said that I've no beef with complete shows, just as long as that does not preclude the release of partial shows.

To wit: among my selections of the best releases thus far:

• DiP 12 - 6/26 and 6/28/74
• Hofheinz Pavilion - 11/18/72
• DiP 28 - 2/26 and 2/28/73
• DaP 11 - 11/17 and 11/15/72
• DiP 14 - 11/30 and 12/2/73

So we have a mix. Four releases of partial shows that are fantastic (and likely don't suffer much from what's missing, despite the pit bull mentality of the "I'll curate it myself, thank you very much" folks) and a full show with top-shelf filler. Does anyone think that these releases are in any way lacking in quality? Would you prefer that they had never been released without full tapes or full shows only?

 

Wait, what? You can download Grateful Dead shows from the internet?

 

Unless the rhesus monkeys working in the mail room for dead dot net didn’t get their bananas that day.

 

I am far-from affluent.
This is why I have credit, and an existing mortgage.
Yet, I'm kinda happy.

A hundred hogs a year?
WTF? It's a bargain.

 

Sorry.
Half-assed hammered.

 

Well I’m sorry but this is a full-assed operation, Sir.

 

Understood.
I shall correct, given the opportunity.

 

Why all the fighting as of late? The dead threads are where I come to find solace in the world.

Bonus discs are exactly that: a bonus for subscribers. To make them anything but would be pointless. Feeling FOMO is one thing, but to become irate at Rhino for daring to release music for profit is a bit much.

Like The Residents always said: "Buy or Die". Well, maybe don't die, just live without.

 

An obvious response would be that we have become caged animals. I don't know if the obvious applies; simply offering an opinion.

 

who’s fighting and what for?
I preordered the 1970 FZ box it’s fifteen bucks a disc well worth it. I would pony up more if necessary for either. They can market it the way they want and while I have subscribed continuously since it’s inception I do believe that making the bonus disc exclusive to the subscribers is a little shortsighted. Seems they could sell it as a slightly less limited release like they did with that solo 72 disc. This would be a great model for single disc releases of incomplete shows. Don’t cut a show if its available complete, so a show like 62274 will be released individually. Ultimately subscribers are small subset of the fan base and with all that’s available freely everybody can get what they need if you try

 

If the GD/Rhino/Dave announced tomorrow that bonus discs are wrong, they are ashamed, and bonus discs will no longer be offered, I'd say OK, but can the second Dave's of the year still have four discs? Then, when Real Gone does their reissue for double or triple the price, they could include all the discs. How's that for a compromise?