For all music lovers out there, everyone has a band and or musician that has touched their heart in a significant way, dubbing them your favourite. Having a favourite musical influence can sometimes lead to a borderline obsession. For some that obsession comes in the form of stalking the group and or artist throughout and entire tour, or it could be that you have every piece of memorabilia that has ever been produced that dawns the logo or name of that band or artist; t-shirts, CDs, maybe even some vinyl’s or patches. All of those examples are pretty standard and expected to be in any fan’s repertoire of support swag for their favourite artists and my collection for some of my favourites has grown significantly over the years. However, there is one type of paraphernalia that I can’t wrap my head around; Deluxe CDs.
For those unfamiliar, a deluxe CD can be a reproduction of an older album that already exists, or the same album you bought a year ago, with some newer or unreleased tracks from the artists. Deluxe CDs may contain all of the aforementioned features and sometimes even the addition of some terrible live performance recordings. Sounds appealing, right? Simply the idea of repurchasing something that you already own, to obtain a couple more tracks that didn’t make it to the final cut of the original LP seems absurd, and it is.
My frustrations could be avoided with the solution of the digital availability like iTunes and Spotify, where it’s easy to just add these new songs to a playlist, and then carry on with my life, but it’s not that easy for someone like myself who has a ridiculous irrational fear (obsession) of not being “the best fan I can be” by having all of the memorabilia I can get my hands on from these artists I idolise (obsess over). I will stand in massive lines and wait insane amounts of time to get a hold of every t-shirt offered from a specific tour and won’t think twice. However, as I walk to the counter to pay some sweaty teenager with WAY too many piercings for the overpriced deluxe CD in my hand from whatever band, I ask myself, “Do I really need this?” The answer is always “No!” Do I buy it anyway because I have a defect in my mind that tells me I’m a bad fan and not supporting the bands I love if I don’t? Yes, yes I do.
Is this a me problem? Probably. Before I wrap this up, I must touch more on Live Albums. I hate them, possibly more than Deluxe CDs. The whole album’s sound quality is shit, and unless you were at that particular show, who gives a fuck? Why would I want to buy the soundtrack to an event I didn’t attend; why would anyone? For the 15,000 – 20,000 people that were at that show, I could see that album being a desirable novelty, but for the rest of the fan base… Not so much. You can argue, “What if you can’t go to any shows and you just want to pretend your there… “ blah blah blah. The albums are TERRIBLE. With the advances in virtual reality, I’m hoping that soon takes over the release of ANY live albums for the future. Forever.
The best thing we can all do (myself included) is to simply stop buying both the deluxe cds and the live cds. If we all band together in a mass movement of no longer purchasing these money extorting forms of entertainment, it will force the bands to create EPs instead of making their fans buy the same shit twice! That’s all I’m asking. I’m not against unreleased tracks hitting my eardrums, in fact I’m always thankful for new music from the bands I love, but for the love of God stop making me buy the same album multiple times.
For the record, if anyone offers me the solution of, “You could just pirate or download everything including the extra songs for free” I will tell you that you’re a bad person and that you should feel bad. You’re bad people music thieves; feel bad.