NewsCelebrating SDE’s 10th anniversary
Paul Sinclair, with the obligatory balloons, celebrates SDE’s 10th anniversary
Ten years ago today, I posted a fairly innocuous news story about Kate Bush‘s then new album Director’s Cut. Not many people read it and only two commented on it (one of which was spam). SDE was born.
A DECADE on and SuperDeluxeEdition.com is approaching 100m lifetime page views and is read by around a quarter of a million music fans every month!
This is truly incredible, since the site started off as nothing more than a hobby; an exercise designed – in part – to help me acquire some new skills!
As a teenager in the 1980s, I was fascinated by formats and limited editions, be they cassette singles, poster sleeve seven-inch vinyl, remix 12-inches, or CD singles. I figured there must be lots of people a bit like me, in that respect. I loved physical music, deluxe formats and after the depressing period early in the new millennium, where everything was about MP3s and illegal downloading, things seemed to turn a corner around 2010 and 2011.
Paul McCartney kicked off his long-running Archive Collection campaign with Band on the Run. Pink Floyd announced their ‘Immersion’ box sets (marbles!). Suddenly, some very cool looking physical products were being made available. Things were changing. I was intrigued.
The SDE site as it looked back in September 2011!
It’s seems I was not alone in my fascination. SDE has been a life-affirming experience and wonderful to connect with so many like-minded individuals over the last ten years. It feels like a truly global community and I’d like to thank each and every SDE reader, wherever you may be in the world, for coming to this site, reading the content posted here and perhaps leaving a comment.
Today is a good time to tell you about two exciting new initiatives…
New SDE website
I’m excited to tell you that next month SDE will be given something of a facelift with a brand new website! The site has been redesigned and will boast a fresh look and feel, new functionality and a totally revamped comments section. I hope this will be a solid foundation for the next ten years and a platform for more great content and improved reader interaction.
Commemorative book
There’s currently over 6,000 posts on SDE, with plenty of great interviews and features somewhat hidden away. For the tenth anniversary, I thought it would be an appropriate time to produce a book to bring together the best of SDE from between 2011 and 2021. Therefore I’m happy to announce DECADE: The Best of Super Deluxe Edition 2011-2021 a 128-page softcover book which offers content highlights from the last ten years.
This publication is our biggest ever (more than twice the size of McCartney: 10 Years of Archive Reissues) and will bring together special features and interviews. The book includes newly commissioned illustrations, new annotations from me, giving the behind-the-scenes commentary on all the interviews, along with unseen photos and more. This is the first of three planned volumes for 2021 which together will form a wonderful physical memento of the first ten years of SDE.
Read more about DECADE and pre-order your copy here.
Finally, thanks for being here on this very special day!!
SDE helps fans around the world discover physical music and discuss releases. To keep the site free, SDE participates in various affiliate programs, including Amazon and earns from qualifying purchases.
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Hi Paul,
Congrats to all of you there at SDE. A wonderful website for aficionados like us.
God bless and long life
Tino
Thanks Tino!
Congratulations Paul/SDE on ten years,I discovered this site when I was looking for some info on a UB40 reissue and still check it everyday,hope you carry on for another decade.
Looking forward to the day you go public with this website and become a zillionaire,,,and being the man you are,,you do. A Julian Richter and give all your top comments people a share of your wealth,,thanks in advance John
Haha… top ‘comments people’ will get some recognition on the new SDE site (coming soon) but sadly it won’t be in the form of cash :)
Congratulations Paul! And SDE for ten glorious years.The bank that holds my credit cards thanks you! And I thank you,and like many others here my wife doesn’t thank you.But ten years sort of fills me with dread,please tell us that you have charged someone with carrying on SDE when your no longer able to do so? For all that is holy please tell us that SDE will carry on!
Congratulations Paul. Best website out there for the detailed content. I appreciate all the work you put into it and my music collection is better for it.
Cheers. Mike
Congratulations , great job! we are happy and lucky to be able to enjoy SDE!
Nice one Paul. Zero percent narcissism; one hundred percent enthusiasm. A refreshing presence on the web.
How time flies… My first quite random visit to SDE was sometime around 2013. Can´t remeber what I was searching for back then, but SDE soon became one of those sites that I visit daily. And soon after that SDE became my favourite music-related site and has remained so during all these years.
SDE is such a wonderful place and as someone said earlier in these comments, an oasis of peace and calm in these challenging and somewhat quite mad times we are living at the moment. It´s always so nice to take a little break and read the informative and brilliantly written articles and comments from SDE community. The comments section has to be one of the most sane and well-behaving in the world wide web.
So, happy anniversary Paul and all the best for future and next ten years of SDE!
Hi Paul,
You bring enjoyment to people worldwide on a daily basis—what a great thing to do! Thank You and congratulations on SDE’s tenth anniversary.
Congrats Paul, and thanks for everything you do.
That Quadrophenia set…all I can say is:
From my cold, dead hands…
Congrats, Paul, and thank you for a great job of keeping all of us music lovers informed about what’s going on in the music. I, for one, check your site at least a few times per week.
Stay well, and stay in the groove ;-) !
Happy Anniversary and thanks for 10 years of great information and entertainment!
Happy Anniversary, Paul! What a thoughtful and valuable service you provide. Wishing you another decade of excellence.
Happy Anniversary Paul . Thanks for all your hard work , much appreciated . Look forward to looking you up most days . SDE’s have become my passion nowadays and look forward to what’s to come . Cheers Paul and HAPPY SAINT PATRICKS DAY ☘☘☘
Happy birthday SDE. Saved to my favourites in 2017 just so I could find details of The Beatles 50th Anniversary reissues but became so much more ! Just this year, I became a fan of Steven Wilson because of your site as I’d never heard of him before (amazingly) and wondered what the new album of a guy who looked like a Bank Manager sounded like…which was pretty good ! Congratulations Paul as the effort, energy and enthusiasm put into Superdeluxeedition is incredible. And I like the fact it’s accurate which indicates a lot of care and quality on the site. Look forward to another 10 years and more…
Congratulations on your big achievement Paul. I’ve been visiting the site for quite a few years and even though a lot of the music covered is far from my personal tastes I still enjoy reading the content and watching the videos.
Good luck with the new website and here’s to the next 10 years and beyond.
cheers
Carl
Congratulations, I can’t imagine 2021 without SDE.
My go to site in the morning! Congratulations,
Hi Paul, Happy 10th Anniversary to SDE. I’m from Malaysia and I check-in your site almost everyday. Many thanks for the great reviews and interviews. Cheers
Happy anniversary Paul and thank you for starting up your passion into an entity all its own.
Through SDE I have purchased lots and lots of Super Deluxe Editions which I would otherwise not been aware of.
Thanks and continued success in the next decade.
Without needing a reply from Paul but to add to the page views and skew numbers by at least one more, thanks to SDE for all it’s brought to us reading over it’s lifespan so far!!!!!
I’m interested in the upcoming SDE book but hoping it won’t be limited as I can’t order it immediately and knowing any shipments to the US may potentially be delayed (through no fault of Paul of course!) Looking forward to the site upgrade and here’s to many more years here!!
Congratulations Paul! Thank you so much for all the enjoyable reading, videos & deal alerts over the past 10 years
Congratulations, Paul, on reaching your 10th anniversary. I always check in on here before going to sleep. I’d have missed a lot of great records (at great prices!) if you weren’t around. Thanks. Looking forward to your 20th :)
Happy birthday SDE and many thanks to you, Paul, for all the work. Been here from the beginning and still visit everyday. Everything’s already been said, so here’s to next 10. Take care, my good man.
thank you Paul….you have brought some happiness to my life.
Brilliant website Paul. You were great sorting out my St Etienne box sets. Upsides? Can sneak a new album in like a ninja. Downsides? None, unless having six vinyl copies/editions of Vol 4 by Sabbath is a problem. Which it isn’t. Well done to all involved.
Congratulations on the 10 year anniversary Paul!
Amazing foresight to anticipate the rise to prominence of the SDE!
Wow. What an achievement!! I was thinking about this today, I think the 1st thing I read here was your review of Duran Duran’s “Paper Gods” album back in September 2015. For some reason I never checked back regularly for a while but alas I soon saw the error of my ways. Now, at best it’s fascinating for the stuff you never get anywhere else, the interviews, the unboxing videos. Fantastic. It’s definitely “Go to” site to find out what’s happening release-wise without getting the “Woke” / right on spin on things which is very refreshing these days.
Paul: Keep up the excellent work & I’ve just ordered the book. Looks brilliant!!
Thanks Burt and to everyone! Sorry I haven’t replied to each and every comment individually but I really touched by all the positive vibes! Thank you.
Congratulations Paul on a job well done. I will be forever grateful to you for the heads up on the T.Rex Slider 40th Anniversary box set a few years back which I got for £20.00, one of my prize possessions. These days my finances don’t stretch to SDE’s but I’m always on the lookout for a bargain so keep up the good work.
Paul, if you had started one day later, SDE and me could celebrate together! :-D
In all seriousness, it’s truly amazing to look back at your first posts and consider how far this venture has come since then. Your writing was probably just as good back then but the lack of comments shows how little attention it got in the beginning. Clearly, your involvement with the reissues by Tears for Fears and Paul Young played a part (certainly in my case due to the The Hurting box set) but it’s also a case of quality finding an audience.
Looking forward to what you have in store for us in the future. Although I have somewhat re-adjusted my priorities and slowed down my consumption (eh) of box sets in favour of streaming (yeah, I know…), I still check in here often to see what’s going on.
Cheers
Julian
Congrats Paul/SDE!
After my morning news doom-scroll your site lifts me up.
Thanks for not banning me after my very first post raised your hackles!
Thank you Paul
I remember 2009 being a big year for deluxe reissues. The big Beatles event (Stereo and Mono), The Stone Roses album’s 20th anniversary, U2’s first four albums, and Scott Walker’s solo albums appearing on vinyl after decades of being unavailable.
I also remember thinking what was needed was a top site that covers all these releases and was by a real music fan and a genuine lover of CDs and vinyl. Lucky for all of us that SDE came along in 2011. No other site does it better. Cheers, Paul.
Funny how time flies…
Reading SDE every day has been a pleasure so far, Paul, and I’m sure it will be the same in the next 10(0) years.
Cheers from Bologna, Italy.
Many congratulations Paul – an impressive milestone. The most visited website by me by a country mile. I was lucky to find you very early on when the Pink Floyd marbles box sets were released and I have never looked back (or counted the cost). Shine on !
Congratulations and thank you!!!! Like others, you have cost me a lot of money but the joy and happiness in finding the releases……far out weighs! :-) This is the one site I visit daily. Thank you….be safe and well.
One of my few “go to” sites every day… informative, interesting and just plain fun. Well done and Congratulations on your tenth!
Congrats , there are many precious items in my collection
that would not be there without the invaluable heads up this site provides.
Long may you run Paul (to quote young/stills) All the best to the next 10 !!
You bastard, you’ve cost me so much money over the years :D
But seriously, congratulations on 10 years and let’s raise a glass to the next 10.
Many Happy Returns, Paul! Here’s to another 10 (and more) years!
Paul,
All I can say is “Thanks.” Your blog is appreciated. It has made me aware of both releases and deals I would have missed entirely, or would have discovered too late on my own to take advantage of them. I wish you and yours the best and look forward to continuing visiting this site. I also appreciate the unboxing videos. Many times, some of the artists you feature are entirely unknown to me as they appear to be entirely UK/European-based with little US presence, but there is enough of other artists I have heard of to keep me coming back. Thanks, again.
I have been coming to superdeluxeedition every day for several years now .. This is my reference site .. Thank you Paul and I take this opportunity to advertise the new Terence Trent D’arby / Sananda Maitreya’s album which is wonderful
Many congratulations from South Korea!
Congratulations! ;-) This site helps a lot with the search for new releases.
Thanks Paul for the blog, I would of giving up on picking up music back in 2012 after losing all my vinyl in a flood. SDE has been a godsend to me when I found this site in 2012 for a last musical hurrah, I have since kept list of what is coming out and my music has increased ten fold and back to the capacity it was when I lost my collection.
One of the handful of sites I start every day with. Congratulations, and may you have many more years living your passion.
Hey Paul! Many, many congratulations on the tenth anniversary of SDE. I had no idea the site had been in existence for that long, coming across it as I did purely by chance. I would echo the sentiments of all the other collectors who post here to say that you are a one-of-a-kind essential resource for us all and the depth of your knowledge and the extent of your industry connections ensures that you are (nearly!) always the first to break cover on new releases etc. Allowing the fans themselves the platform from which to wax lyrical about whether or not a certain product is worth shelling out for or not is also extremely helpful. There has, undoubtedly, been a resurgence in interest in physical media for music (vinyl mainly, but also in lavish reissues – although sadly not all of them are as essential as their producers may think) and I am sure you are at least partially to blame for it! Here’s to the next ten years and beyond!
A massive congratulations as what Pink Floyd would say 10 years have got behind no one told you where to run, hope you & family have a wonderful celebration, your input in all musical tastes is nothing short of superb.
Looking forward to the next 10. Congrats Paul
J
Many congratulations Paul on 10 wonderful years.
I’ve lost count of the number of times that I’ve been ‘tipped off’ by one of your News Items and then managed to get hold of some very limited releases. This is one of very few sites that I look at several times a day no matter where I am or what I’m doing.
Please keep it going!!