what i don't get about cd sales

[aramism]

how come they give you bonus tracks on itunes, but not on cd sales?

i buy 50/50 from itunes and phsical cds. stuff i really love and wanna keep or for studio referencing i buy cds, stuff that's ok or i wanna check out a song here and there i get from itunes. itunes is cool in how they give you little "nuggets" of incentives like bonus tracks or covers, but it bothers me that the standard edition of the cds don't contain that. i don't mind shelling out extra dough to get the physical cd, but if they are gonna put it on itunes as a standard download for the standard album version (not a special edition like how on some cds have bonus tracks) then they should also put it on the cd.

 

[Harry Hughes]

Yeah this annoys me too, since I prefer physical copies and never buy from iTunes or anything like that

 

[egan.]

My assumption is that they are trying to sell to downloaders and the CD is (nearly) always the source of the leak. So in essence, they are adding bonuses to compete with the most popular torrents. I agree it sucks.

 

[fatalforce]

Think manufacturing cost definitely comes into play. you have to predict your sales just right. If you make too many CDs, you are sitting on alot of money and if you make too little, it's gonna cost you alot for re-replication. Digital files are practically no cost and easy to distribute!

Bonus tracks are also used to re-sell the album. Like for digipacks, diehard fans are going to re-buy for the extra tracks, videos, etc. It seems like those are kinda fading out I feel. I agree it also is incentive to buy instead of downloading from torrents.

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

Good. Irrational business decisions like this will continue to doom the record industry. Can't wait for anarchy here.

 

[egan.]

It's also possible that they are just offering the world's largest music retailer (which iTunes has been for two years) exclusive content. That's hardly irrational in conjunction with any of the other possible reasons listed.

 

[aramism]

its not for digi packs. most new albums come with itunes bonus stuff. a cover song, "b side", live version etc...


cds get nothing. kidn of disheartening for people who want to buy cds AND get bonus stuff. usually the imports have special stuff but u gotta wait for that and its $$$...

i usually buy cd and get bonus stuff from itunes.

the sheer principle of it pisses me so much i feel like and just downloading the goddamn extra song but im so rigidly against it and its a totally separate argument which is not applicable here.

 

[TheDriller]

Personally I'd rather not have any bonus tracks on my CDs. There's little worse than coming to the end of a brilliant album and then having an allegedly 'hilarious' pop song cover or demo version come on after.
Reign In Blood and The Soft Bulletin are two examples that spring to mind.
At least if it's a digital download I can delete the bonus tracks as I see fit, with a cd the fucking thing is ruined.

 

[Kazrog]

I just wish they'd let us buy albums in Apple Lossless format...

 

[aramism]

I just wish they'd let us buy albums in Apple Lossless format...

+1 to this too.

 

[fatalforce]

I just wish they'd let us buy albums in Apple Lossless format...

I feel like this is coming with high resolution encoding becoming more in demand. Remember when 128 kbps was known as CD quality? wow

 

[DanLights]

Personally I'd rather not have any bonus tracks on my CDs. There's little worse than coming to the end of a brilliant album and then having an allegedly 'hilarious' pop song cover or demo version come on after.
Reign In Blood and The Soft Bulletin are two examples that spring to mind.
At least if it's a digital download I can delete the bonus tracks as I see fit, with a cd the fucking thing is ruined.

I totally agree with this. In ITunes I just un-check most bonus tracks so they don't play nor sync to my IPhone. It really sucks to listen to a great album and then hear a lousy demo version of the first track or a horribly sounding live version of it. Most bonus tracks on re-issues suck IMO, but that's not the case mentioned in the OP