Saturday Deluxe / 28 July 2018
Fans slam decision not to issue Yazoo box on CD
If you believe the ‘death of the CD’ hype – largely perpetuated by the media and some parts of the record industry itself – then it might be worth taking a look at the comments from real fans on SDE, under the recent post about the forthcoming Yazoo Four Pieces box set, which paint a very different picture…
This forthcoming box set contains ‘exclusively remastered’ versions of both Yazoo albums – along with an LP of remixes and a disc of largely unreleased BBC sessions – but the only physical edition available is on vinyl. According to Alison Moyet’s official news twitter account, there are “no plans for there to be a CD release.”
Let’s remind ourselves that while CD sales are undoubtedly in decline, more than 40m CDs were sold in the UK last year, compared to just 4.1m vinyl records. So despite outselling vinyl by a factor of 10 to 1, BMG have chosen not to release this box set on the most popular physical format. This is the same record label that released a 13CD Erasure box set last year.
We can obviously read between the lines. There is more profit in a £75 vinyl box set than a £20 four-CD set, but that’s not to say there’s no profit in a CD box set, as the Cherry Reds and Edsels of this world would attest. And anyway, even if you only make a tenth of the profit of a CD box, if you apply the 10:1 ration then all is good in the world.
It sticks in the craw somewhat, to see Tote bags and T-shirts being sold with the vinyl box to create £100 bundles, when the label haven’t done the basics and issued the actual music on CD! Music is, after all, what it’s all about.
Then there is also the ‘trendy’ factor. Vinyl is hip, CDs are boring (supposedly). Maybe Vince Clarke and Alison Moyet have decreed this set should only be issued on vinyl, because they don’t want the latest Yazoo box set in kicking around the glovebox of a used Ford Mondeo. Who knows?! I have reached out to label for a comment and will update this post if they come back with an explanation (I should add that I have no particular axe to grid. I buy both vinyl and CD box sets regularly).
In the meantime, here’s a small selection of what you had to say…
Neil: “If people want vinyl but give people the choice, as quite rightly they will be complaining why this isn’t being released on CD”
Marcel Rijs: “Record companies shouldn’t be so quick to set aside large lumps of possible customers. As it is, I won’t buy this. Their loss.”
Dr Volume: “As the comments here prove, if this is just a sample of Yazoo fans they’ve seriously misjudged demand on this one.”
AKICKUPTHE80S: “Would have been more tempted by a CD release.”
MusicFan: “I am surprised the CD format is being swept aside for a bloated vinyl boxed format where two-thirds of the content is already released.”
John Bommarito: “I’ll throw my vote in for a CD version of the remixes and BBC sessions. Not that it’ll make any difference as we don’t matter.”
Read more about Yazoo’s Four Pieces box set.
Lord of The Rings: The Return of The King – great 4CD+blu-ray price
As announced this week, it’s great news that fans don’t have to wait long for the final part of the Lord of The Rings soundtrack reissues, since the ‘complete recordings’ of Howard Shore‘s The Return of The King will be issued on vinyl and CD/Blu-ray in September.
Despite the fact that the CD/Blu-ray box of The Return of The King has one more disc (it’s 4CD+blu-ray) it’s now actually cheaper in the UK than the previous set, because you can pick it up for £61. Very much worth locking into that price.
I’m ‘in’ for both the vinyl and ‘optical’ versions of this edition, having bought both of the the previous volumes, although I will acknowledge that it’s been an expensive exercise and will demand some marathon listening sessions. Should be good though… and the 5.1 surround mixes are amazing.
Read more about The Lord of The Rings: The Return of the King soundtrack
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A few months ago I thought I wanted to have the vinyls of Yazoo and a few days ago I learned about this box. Wonderful, it’s a gift for fans who love vinyl!
With the large amount of releases coming out on CD only, it seems a bit of an overreaction on any particular set being vinyl only. There will continue to be sets that are CD only, some that are vinyl only, some that are a mix, and music fans that complain about the formats. I think you’ve hit on it, it’s a business decision. Who knows, maybe there’s a more comprehensive CD box coming in the future.
I’m still waiting on the Tom Petty CD albums box that seems to not be materializing after the LP sets.
What I fear is these LP sets don’t end up selling that well and the labels decide to not go ahead with the planned CD sets.
I don’t get CDs anymore: it’s buying off iTunes, streaming (high quality due to membership) Spotify, or buying vinyl.
Ever since the 2010s began, CDs seemed to be thought of as an afterthought in terms of packaging. Look at Wasting Light by the Foo fighters or Reflektor by Arcade Fire to see what I mean.
I also only buy CDs. Having already gone through the process once of swapping vinyl for CDs throughout the eighties and nineties, I am not inclined to do it again. It is disappointing that so many releases are now vinyl or download only, as it means that I am being excluded basically from the market (I despise the whole concept of downloading and streaming). I also find it interesting that many artists still issue promo versions of vinyl only releases on CD. There must be room for the CD format in today’s market and even for limited edition releases on CD if record companies do not want to go the whole hog. I spend close on £100 per week on music, but I can only see that declining if the current trend continues.
It’s already declined for me for this reason.
I love Yazoo. I’d pay money for this set on CD. I won’t pay money for a digital download unless it’s lossless. I won’t buy it on vinyl, despite the fact that I own three turntables. I don’t pay those ridiculous prices for vinyl unless it’s something I REALLY can’t get any other way. The format has too many downsides, and I absolutely hate the “gamble” of whether or not I’ll end up with a decent pressing. So Yazoo and the record label won’t be getting a penny from me with this release.
I am buying both vinyl and CD sets. However, the problem with CD sets with an exhaustive collection of remixes is that they are basically unlistenable (or listenable for one time. or maybe listenable for you, buy they may drive your family crazy ;) ).
I think the best way is to release all albums and 12″ in their original way, bundled together. So far, I only know of Sisters of Mercy doing this. Also Depeche Mode seems to do something similar, but excluding the album, which is ok too I suppose.
This can then be replicated in both vinyl and CD version released as separate sets, and also with download codes (yes, even for the CDs’, I am lazy).
Would everyone be happy with this? If so records companies, please follow sisters of mercy example, with the addition of CD versions :)
Yeah, listening to five different mixes of the same track in a row is exhausting. But the point is to give us all the mixes so that one we love is in the set, not at the expense of the one we don’t. That’s why CD, unlike vinyl, is great. As Egg Shen said, “It’s like your salad bar, take what you want, leave the rest.”
I was a big fan of the CD over 35 years! But I have all the time my vinyl collection in the background.
Since beginning of 2018 I have a subscription at qobuz and I’m really happy with that!
Every friday I “have” the newest “CD’s” and – of course – Box Sets and Super deluxe editions available.
Since then I stopped nearly to buy CD’s! The only reasons to buy CD’s are…
… not available at qobuz. Rarely…
… additional benefit. Rarely…
… “extreme important”. Also rarely but if so I buy the vinyl and hear CD-quality on qobuz.
Apropos Vinyl: I hate mp3 downloads which come with a vinyl. In my eyes a contradiction. When I buy a vinyl I want something special and the best quality. MP 3 is not the best choice!!! So I be glad when I found as a real benefit a CD inside a vinyl cover or a CD-quality download or – best! – a hires-download. MP3 download makes me angry! We have 2018 and MP3 is old school but not friendly-old-school like for example vinyl… (or newly CD…).
After reading all these comments it’s clear to me that people want all formats, including mp3 files. And providing all formats (except cassettes) is important.
It seems we are at a place in time where many formats are being used equally? Except cassettes.
I stopped bying Vinyl in the 80s and will NEVER buy it again. If you want to sell me something, make it available on CD. I do not buy Vinyl or files. Also do not bundle CDs and Vinyl, I have no need for Vinyl and refuse to pay even $1 because it is included.
The world is gettibg stupider, Brexit, Trump, Vinyl resurgence, what more proof do you need ;)
Anyone else here really enjoying their CD box of Springsteen vol.2
;)
I do find it odd the official line is that, ”CDs are too expensive to produce”. So what they are saying is a 4 CD set would retail at more than £75… but we really aren’t as stupid as the label may think.
The reality is that they really do need to wake up to themselves! Charging £75 for a 4 LPs is crazy considering three discs are already available.
Take for example, the awesome SDE curated Curiosity Killed the Cat 4 disc set which is £25 and has everything a fan could ever want!
It’s about time ‘we’ who are only ever referred to as ‘the market’ need to raise our voices and let the industry know how we feel.
I’m still waiting for the Bruce Springsteen vol.2 album collection to be released on CD (domestically USA, not Japan). I said at the time that releasing that set in vinyl only was the start of things to come…
I dont understand why people complain about Yazoo and the box set not made available on CD. If you take a look at the track listing (both albums + remixes + bbc sessions), I guess it’s about 2 hours of music (maybe a few minutes more) so it would likely fit on a double CD and obviously they could’t charge you £84 for it (even if it includes a book, a poster, art prints). And if they released a four cd box set with the same content then I’m sure people would complain and say music could have fit on a double cd and they mafe 4 cds only to inflate the final price!
I have the original LPs and CDs and they sound great so I don’t need that box set. The funny thing is I would probably have bought this as a simple double CD (without all the extras : book, art prints, poster) as the price would have been in the £15-20 range. I think the first album with the peel sessions would fit on CD1 and then you aďd the remixes to the second album on CD2.
I guess they could have left some empty space in the book or the box for 2 CD and then the double CD could be bought separately. Either you only want digital and you buy the double CD or you want everything and then you buy the deluxe vinyl box set and the double cd ir order to have a complete box. Maybe it would cost foo much. After all, it’s just Yazoo, not U2, Coldplay, Radiohead or Depeche Mode. For what it’s worth, Human League released their compilatoon “a very british synthetizer group” as a double CD, 3CD box set and vinyl box set. The price of the 3 CD box set started very high at £78 and then dropped at £45. I guess it didn’t sell well enough…
I like both formats lp and cd, but also use streaming-services and sometimes buy downloads.
Paul, as Im so tempted to get both lp and cd-boxsets of all 3 Lord Of The Rings-soundtracks, would you say that it’s worth it really? Is it really that good on vinyl to pay much more money for almost same performance and arts? Cd:s already should be fine for those great sounscapes but Im so close to ordering both formats? Help me, tell more how you feel of each set and would it really be good to double-dip and get both?
I’m not sure you really ‘need’ the vinyl… but they are lovely box sets and limited etc. Also, depends on your budget for 2018, because there are going to be plenty of other great boxes in the next six months. Unless you own the old CD/DVD-A sets, I’d say the CD/blu-ray surround boxes should be prioritised above the vinyl.
>>Music is, after all, what it’s all about.
Wish some of the industry people would take this to their hearts…
To be honest with recent policies and releases I have a massive doubt that with many releases it is about the music at all these days…
I love cd’s and still buy them. However, I notice a lot of new cd-releases (and I mean new recordings) appear in a simple gatefold/cardboard sleeve, sometimes even without a booklet. The credits are printed on the sleeve and that’s it. So, in that case I don’t see the benefit of buying the physical product; the only thing I have ‘in my hands’ is a small piece of cardboard.
Of course, a lot of good and extensive cd-releases appear with thick booklets and liner-notes, but these are mostly reissues.
Anyone else who had the same feeling/experiences?
I’ll take a small box set over something more expansive anyday. I have noticed that most CDs I buy nowadays are housed in cardboard sleeves. Jewel case releases are few and far between and even the digipak seems to be falling out of favour.
Personally I dislike jewel cases, they scratch and crack easily, hinges break and I’ve even cracked a cd that got stuck once. I would much prefer card mini Lp replica covers with booklet. Apart from the disc itself both Lps and Cds are just a bit of card and paper. Besides the less plastic packaging the better.
Absolutely agree. I mentioned this in another post. They actually call this card sleeve a “digipak” which is not what I would traditionally call a digipak i.e. a fold over card sleeve containing a clear plastic CD holder stuck onto the pack with a booklet in the front card. It’s just a cheapskate card sleeve that you used to get with CD singles many moons ago.
I bought a few vinyl records (second hand or new) because I had to. Some songs or albums are still unavailable on CD: Paul Simon’s 12” remixes of “Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes” and “The Boy in the Bubble, Tanita Tikaram’s “Fireflies in the Kitchen” (n the 12” single Cathedral Song), Art Garfunkel’s “The Romance” (on the original album version of Scissors Cut), Sade’s “Wired” (on the 12” remix of Is It a Crime) (And it’s a crime there’s still no deluxe edition of her albums), Soundtrack albums “Up on the Creek”, “Almost Summer”… I can go on.
I don’t pay for vinyl rips on CD’s when the original master-tapes still exists, I can do that at home. Record Companies or artists (depends on who’s in control) should listen more to their music-fans. Without them they got nothing! No job, no income! So why don’t they have some kind of “contact website” where fans can be heard (Alright, something SDE is doing but more). Where fans can have some input (by giving them the opportunity of choosing songs, bonus tracks, design, …) in the making of a rerelease or a best of or a greatest hits or what will be the next single or how the artwork should look like or … . When fans are involved there will be more profit for the artist or record company (Yes mister lawyer at the helm of the company, sad for you but it’s true). Now it’s a one way direction, take it or leave it. And I will leave it when the rerelease is a quick throwing together of a 20th , 30th , 40th or 50th anniversary edition.
Everything evolves but what evolution do we want? An evolution with varied choice or limited choice?
@Jurg
Scroll down about 20 comments and you’ll find a suggestion I made re SDE harness the mass of music fans it has that congregate on the site to put some reissues out “the right way”.
I’m not sure if Paul has the capacity (or inclination) though.
@Jurg, Art Garfunkel’s The Romance is on the 2013 Japanese mini LP Blu Spec CD. All six AG albums released in that format sound wonderful.
Paul Simon’s Boy in the Bubble extended version is available on the US Promo CD Single.
I buy CDs, vinyl stream. digital downloads – all of them as I love music. For something to be exclusive to vinyl, that’s fine by me – normally it’s CDs that get the deluxe treatment. They should have thrown a spanner in the works and issued it on Mini disc and cassette combo ha ha. If you are a fan/collector you will find a way of listening to a release like this. My go to is vinyl – it’s my era and i’m thankful that it’s back in full force after 20 plus years of it being ignored and relegated to bargain bins
I bought a synthesizer and an arpeggiator and threw my computer out the window because I wanted to make something real.
I wanted to make a Yaz record.
I am in the USA and only purchase cd’s. I just read a story from the Chicago Tribune a few days ago about the Best Buy CEO named Hubert Joly. Apparently earlier this year he asked a bunch of people at a gathering: “Who buys cd’s anymore?” Joly is a Bozo in my book. He obviously never reads SDE. Best Buy stopped selling cd’s in store on July 1. The web site is getting bare, too. I hope Best Buy goes out of business.
Long live cd’s!
This may have already been stated in the 50 plus responses below: Doesn’t a vinyl only release encourage paid downloads or paying for only selected tracks, and most importantly: illegal downloading? I suppose those who download illegally probably download illegally even if the release is available on CD. Vinyl only will encourage “needle drop” downloads.
It’s not important. Illegal downloading is nowhere near as prevalent as it was 10-15 years ago.
Vinyl is great. But releases also need to be released on CD, because as far as I can see, CD’s are still wanted by many people. I’ve always assumed that digital downloads have always come from the original copy off the CD’s.
I have something like 2000 sets of CDs [from single CDs, double CD sets, box sets, etc.]. I have some vinyl but I’m not running out to change my collection over – especially when I have no turntable!
It’s not complicated. If there is a physical digital release (CD), then they can have my money. If not, I’ll pirate it. It’s that simple. They either want to make money from digital, or they don’t. I suppose they’re saying that the monies from streaming is good enough. I do not stream, and I don’t want to stream.
Note to industry: I’ve been buying music for 50 years. I want to continue to buy music. I want PHYSICAL music. I’ve been and done Vinyl, and have ZERO INTEREST in going back to it. CD is my poison of choice. You either give me the option to PAY for my music, or I join the hordes who pirate your product.
Dean, agree with every word you have said. The industry seems to only want 2 options now – 1. premium price vinyl with a huge profit margin, while it still has the ‘hipsters’ and people who never got rid of their equipment or collections but still like to put the needle on a record. And 2. Streaming which has next to no costs other than royalties. It’s all too much bother to put a decent CD collection out which may sell more than vinyl but has a much smaller margin. On Yazoo, they were a very short lived group who only released 2 albums, indeed had split before the 2nd was released. Surely the vault must be empty by now? Perhaps it’s all a marketing ploy and in a few months they will release on CD ‘by popular demand’?
As a fan I think it’s sad everyone is disappointed with the first Yazoo release in eight and ten years!
I feel the first three discs are being used to created a bloated package to bump up the price to pay for the licensing costs of disc 4.
I am sure anyone at the label who had passion for Yazoo is long gone many years ago and that this is the ‘amazing idea’ of a marketing kid just out of university!
Why don’t music companies get creative with CDs and try to keep it alive? I believe one of the main attractions of buying vinyl records (if not the only one) is the awesome/big artwork and (sometimes) the inner sleeves / lyrics sheets that come with it, I am sure we can release CDs also in a similar package size with all of the great (big, vinyl record sleeve type) artwork, I believe Disney has already launched that packaging for blu-rays (similar to the LD packages of yore) and they look awesome to me: http://www.denofgeek.com/uk/movies/big-sleeve-edition/44360/disney-big-sleeve-edition-images#19 I buy a ton of vinyl and I love the sound etc but I also love CDs especially the box-sets and any kind of special packaging ; have a ton of albums of the artists I love on both CD and Vinyl and am also nuts for keeping Apple Music as well which I use to sample albums before I buy them and also since most of the new-ish cars do not have a CD player anymore :( IMHO vinyl sales are all good but the industry is basically killing it with overpricing and at the same time trying to purposely/forcefully kill the CD forma while they at it which doesn’t make sense to me either.
One of the reasons I have not bought any of the Ramones Super Deluxe reissues, is that I do not want the vinyl. As much as I sometimes regret it, I got rid of my vinyl in the 1990s. I’m not going back. I don’t want downloads either. I can’t stomach paying almost the same price for a download as I would pay for a physical CD. It’s ridiculous. There is nothing to manufacture. It is a digital file that can be reproduced, at no cost, indefinitely I will not be gouged, so blatantly. I still want CDs.
Hopefully they actually have a good business case for not releasing this in CD format. Profit margin, resources, licensing, etc, because it doesn’t seem likely that you can make the case that it won’t sell.
I grew up with vinyl and enjoy the whole vinyl thing, the artwork, the fact you can see what’s happening and understand the simple process of mic, cut groove, needle, speaker.
But….. I buy on cd so I can afford more new music each year. We need some honesty here, record companies should say they need to make profit x rather than bullshit excuses or if I’m being very generous maybe it’s harder to bootleg an LP than a CD!
So is the digital download for the Yazoo set cd quality or better? This should be the minimum you get with your vinyl for that price as ripping the LPs is time consuming and lower quality.
In some ways now is a great time to buy cds, they’ve never been cheaper new and that’s probably the real reason in this case not to issue them.
All we need is a choice and not to be excluded by level of disposable income.
Without the renewed interest in vinyl locally, I am fairly certain that the last three remaining used record stores in my area would have closed as many had done before. One local store just had a store-wide CD sale to celebrate their 30th Anniversary. Sadly, I don’t think this video does much to argue the case that CDs are still relevant…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILfnvBFrUu0
CD And 5.1 surround fan myself and prefer physical rather than download.
A vinyl box set leaves me cold. And mixed format sets are a definite no no.
So this stays on the shelf for me.
One of the main reasons vinyl is so expensive…hipsters are using them as diner plates !
Haha Gareth and they are using CD’S as beer mats lol
I’ve never paid for a download, use no streaming service (except maybe a couple of listens on YouTube/bandcamp to see if I like something) and haven’t bought vinyl since 1991 yet I still spend most of my disposable income on music. Suddenly I don’t matter because “no one wants CDs”!?!
I’ve long favored this metaphor and I will use it again: vinyl is the cool, hip, charismatic older sibling who’s nonetheless high maintenance and a bit of a pain to manage. Streaming is the hard working and high achieving youngest sibling who’s always getting the job done but completely devoid of personality and interest.
CDs are the unloved middle child: not as cool as vinyl, yet not as high maintenance either. They are more interesting than streaming, but not quite as practical either.
For me, I’ll continue to prefer the “compromise” between aesthetic/collector value and practicality that CDs offer.
Haha… Very good!
Not in terms of audio quality but in terms of performance.
The John Peel session version of Don’t Go is available to stream as a single now. I see it on Apple Music and it may be on other services too. It’s a very good version.
Never understood why record labels choose to bury a viable format. I always thought a business was about selling … anyway thanks for starting the fight and that great website
Well said SDE Paul. I’m so fed up reading the general “physical media is dead” all over the place, not just CD. The music and TV / movie product world has its own hoards of fake news purveyors. Just hecause their local store has shut down or is deserted, they spread this nonsense about nobody buying CDs etc any more.
@Kevin M. What the media are saying is largely tosh. Just been down to my local HMV (Junction 32 Castleford for any Yorkshire based people out there) , which incidentally was newly opened last year and the place was rammed with people buying ‘physical’ product. I went to pick up the new PIL box with five CDs & two DVDs in it – how un-trendy is that?
@David M Yeah, although the The HMVs in London I encounter that haven’t shut down, are often almost deserted, even at what presumably used to be busy times, but even when that’s the case people are buying physical stuff from their chosen online or smaller retailer. A lot of the smaller retailers in London (new and used), went under because of shop rent increases, which busts the other myth of streaming etc killing physical product. Some stores were affected by that, but I know for a fact others were doing fine, it was greed on the part of local councils or landlords which sent them under, doubling or even tripling their rent/rates with little notice, presumably inspired by the colossal, way above inflation residential rental increases London has generally had for some years now.
@Kevin M, London used to be fantastic for picking up physical product, and visiting from the north, I always came back with stuff I’d never see up here. Nowadays, when down I am pretty un-excited about finding anything. The shop that has the most appeal to me is Reckless in Soho (for example I picked up a mint Captain Beefheart CD box there for a reasonable price) and theres always tasty stuff in the glass cabinets. But you are right, it is tough for these shops to keep going with the rent and rates situation alone.
its ok saying cds are boring but whats more boring than black vinyl for the price it should be coloured and the remixes on side 2 sound like new mixes not period pieces from the 80s.
I resisted switching to CD’s for many years until in 1993 when I couldn’t get a vinyl copy of Kate Bush’s The Red Shoes. I have since re-bought my entire record collection on CD – some albums many times (eg The Human League’s Dare originally on vinyl and then 3 different CD versions).
I’ll be god-damned buggered if I go back to buying vinyl again. It’s bulls**t vinyl snobbery all this nonsense – and I’ll bet my life one day soon CD’s will again be ‘cool with the kids’ – after cassettes have their ‘revival’.
It’s all just a ploy to get us to spend our money.
Oh – and Yazoo? ONE good album and a couple of decent singles.
if anyone from mute records read this “for pieces” article about the vinyl box and all the most negative posts about it, they can’t be happy with that bad promotion.
SDE is a powerful website now – real music fans from all over the world share here their thoughts and wishes. artists should better realize that.
it is enough time to change some things for the real yazoo fans,
for those the box is actually made for.
Yes, although I made an error (now corrected) and BMG is the issuing label.
As it’s been said, they cannot charge too much for a cd set while vinyl had no bullshit-price threshhold. Alison’s explanation stinks. She should have kept quiet. By the way i wonder how many long for vinyl reissue in this day and age as we all know most sound crap compared to the originals and the sleeves are mistly xeroxed copies. Thank you Yazoo fans for boycotting this
To be fair that opinion was expressed by the person managing Alison Moyet’s ‘news’ Twitter feed, so not her opinion, as such.
…and to be even more fair there’s a tweet on that feed stating that the cd-option has been discussed at the start of this project but people from the record label decided against it (not the band members) pointing out that there won’t be too much demand for it.
This is very much true, Shane. Vinyl sounded goof up to 1973, then with the oil crisis the quality went downhill. And the current vinly releases are even worse, very loq uality vinly and pressings, very noisy, a real rip-off
We must be buying different Vinyl then, other than most picture discs nearly all of the vinyl I have listened to has been spot on. I know some people have complained about some pressings but not anything I have bought. Admittedly everything I listen to is thoroughly cleaned first with a Hannl Aragon and straight out of the bag is not a way I would listen.
Do you actually buy the stuff Javier or is it just repeating what you have heard? You might have been unlucky but it wouldn’t surprise me to find that people who say this kind of stuff about Vinyl don’t actually buy it. Rather like people who say they can’t stand (insert artist here – let’s say Duran Duran but it could be anyone) but have never listened to an album or more than a single 35 years ago but somehow they don’t like them or “everything they do is shit”.
For every bad Vinyl pressing there are a couple of equally bad CD releases but you can always take them back so really are ALL vinyl releases “Low quality, very noisy and a real rip-off” as that is what you are saying. Hmmm.
I have the In Your Room CD set. If this new set was on CD, the new tracks wouldn’t justify the purchase. However, I’m such a fan that I would probably get it.
By the way this Yazoo no cd policy already started in 2008 in addition to the In Your Room box when Mute released two remix ep’s (Reconnected EP and Nobodys Duary) which also only was available on vinyl and digital.
The problem that the music business must take into account, if anything is issued on vinyl and download files only, people will download for free, guilt free as well. If a cd format is issued they might buy the cd. No cd makes no money to the artist or label much more likely.
I think you are right Paul, that it is the profit margin on the vinyl along with the trendy factor that means no CD set. What I find the most annoying though, is that artists who have had thier sales sustained by CD for twenty five plus years, until streaming and the vinyl resurgence, are quick to neglect the CD format. As RJS says, CD manufacture costs next to nothing.
Elvis Costello has a new album out in October. There is a pre -sale on his website but only for US fans only. Loads of over priced bundles full of absolute tat but containing signed CDs or vinyl. Cheapest option started at $111. Dearest was a signed test press at $290. All signed items already gone. I wonder how many of these over priced bundles of tat they will sell without the lure of a signed piece of music included? And where is the UK pre order link?
Just check out the Elvis site. Only one of the signed bundles is sold out (LP test pressing). Many other bundles still available.
I buy CDs and some vinyl. I’m pretty picky about what I buy on vinyl because it’s so expensive, and tend to just stick to RSD stuff and other choice items. It’s annoying when vinyl releases don’t come with download codes because it’s such a faff to record them, which is something that is so easy to do with CDs. So I end up buying an expensive download (hopefully WAV) that comes with an expensive piece of plastic, I will rarely, if ever, play. Whoever came up with that selling point is a genius!
In relation to this particular release, I picked up the In Your Room box set a little while ago and I’m glad I did as it’s a bit more expensive now. So I won’t be getting this anyway :)
I already have the ‘In Your Room’ box set so for me it’s the BBC tracks and Remixes that I wouldn’t mind being released on CD. So a cheaply manufactured 2CD set would suffice for me and when I say cheap, I mean I don’t need a 20 page booklet or flash digipak cover.
In recent years Placebo reissued their first five studio albums exclusively on vinyl. Means that the remasters aren’t available in any other format than vinyl LP, there was not even a digital download coming with the records. Despite the choice I think they sold pretty well. So who knows, maybe Mute have done their maths right?
It’s not just about ‘maths’ for me. They could easily produce a profitable CD version of this box set but have chosen not too. It’s hard not to conclude that they don’t care about the CD-buying section of their fan base. This idea that ‘digital download/streaming’ is somehow equivalent to issuing it on CD is bollocks, quite frankly.
Totally agree… trying to pacify fans with a crappy download or streaming does not work for me.
Here, here.
Is it profitable ENOUGH though, for the record companies? One of the biggest attractions of this blog are the “deal alerts” with listings of major CD box sets that are deeply discounted by 50 or 60 percent or more. Obviously the retailers would sell them for full price if they could, but they don’t move at that price. No one is immune, The Beatles, U2, Crowded House, all have had their box sets slashed to bargain basement prices (I know this can sometimes happen with vinyl too). I think this is what makes the record companies believe there isn’t demand for CDs, at least not at the price points they want to sell them at. It’s sad but true.
I’m a CD only guy, so I guess I’m just going to have to get used to this. Not happy about it.
Excellent point Don, what is a CD worth. A tenner? £20 or £3. If people think this set (3 or 4 CDs) would be worth £30 on CD then there would be a mass of posts saying I will wait ’til it drops to £15. If they launch at £20 those posts will still appear wanting it for £10 and they won’t make enough money to make it worthwhile. I think they have realized that people who buy Vinyl are prepared to pay a bit more.
So Don is right the question isn’t that the CD version won’t sell, it will sell but at what price point and below a certain point it just isn’t worth it.
CDs have lost their perceived value and for many…so has music. There is a piece in today’s Times about writers bemoaning that people are happy to pay £10 for a couple of coffees but think £10 is too much for a book.
I totally agree Paul,I love vinyl but I think on this release a CD set is needed also, I would never buy downloads ,I like to have the physical format to hold,look at,read and enjoy,let’s hope that the power’s that be listen to genuine fans and this excellent website .
Sadly, I wouldn’t be surprised if this isn’t released sometime next year on CD. I say sadly because I also wouldn’t be surprised if this all isn’t a ploy by BMG. Get the die-hards to buy the overpriced vinyl packages and take the extra profit. Streaming/downloads cost nothing and are mandatory now so that is easy.
Then, “Because you demanded it!”, the set gets released on CD later next year and they pick up the rest of the sales, plus the die-hards that again have to have everything. A true double-dip!
The easiest answer of course is to re-release In Your Room, and then a single CD with the remixes/BBC stuff.
Then everyone is happy – vinyl, CD, downloaders, streamers, and those that just want/need the unreleased material.
I had purchased more than 350 Mute editions on CD and now the record company will not allow me buy this release on CD. @daniel don”t forget the loyal fans!
Daniel Miller doesn’t control the “classic” Mute back catalogue any more. BMG own and control it after bailing / buying Mute out many years ago.
Daniel eventually went independent again with the “new Mute” but left most of the artists behind (though retained (the singular and much misunderstood) Laibach and a few others that BMG didn’t “get”.
He has since built up the independent label again under the banner Mute Artists iirc.
I believe there is some consultancy that occurs between the two companies regarding reissues but it will be BMG calling the shots on it all and £’s are of course a major consideration in these reissue decisions. They probably looked at Yazoo as specialist/niche (fair enough as their success was 35 or so years ago) and neither of the component parts of the band pull up trees commercially. There aren’t any gigs to promote the release to a wider audience this time so they’ve gone for hardcore fans and higher end product thinking that is the best option.
I have an element of sympathy for all sides of the argument. If they did just CD some people would grumble there is no vinyl (a la the Soft Cell box comments and many other examples). If they were to release a CD version later (or just the exclusive tracks even) then the people who formed out for the expensive vinyl would rightly be upset (s la the dodgy RSD exclusives that suddenly become official releases). And from BMGs perspective they look at it and think if we do CD we may sell more but we may not make it worth our (or the artist’s).
Don’t forget – sad to say – that a lot of people in music have limited real love or knowledge about what things are / mean to fans.
There are some really good people in catalogue roles who do get it, but it comes down to the beancounters at the end of the day. And that look at remastering (as an example) as a cost that must have a trade off in EXTRA sales otherwise why bother.
You see some many rehash jobs of artist’s material put out cheaply for supermarkets (this week alone saw the Thomas Dolby one as an example). Minimal investment needed for that and guaranteed to shift decent quantities over time despite it being the 3rd or 4th such collection Dolby’s stuff has had.
To give an example of the challenges that even some (to my mind) no-brainier releases have. I know that Universal were very sceptical of how many Japan vinyl reissues they would sell and nearly didn’t sign off on the proposal to issue them at all let alone remastered. Thankfully they were taken aback by firstly the David Sylvian RSD reaction and then the initial responses/orders of TD and GTP vinyl.
We can all name a load of releases we imagine would pay their own way, but labels need to be able to be sure. At the end of the day people would lose their jobs if they make (too many) mistakes. And it is a job not a vocation to most of them (not a criticism by the way!!).
What might be interesting is to have a SDE label with pledge music-type crowd funding to get those things the community really want that others haven’t hit upon yet? What do you think Paull? A chance to show them how it’s really done?
@Heraldo
You make excellent points, but one major “problem” is that there is always someone there who buys the vinyl release while 9 out of 10 fans would want CDs. So at the end of the day the whole edition is sold. 500 fans are happy, record company is happy – who cares about 4500 other fans who would have bought the CD version.
As long as there is no solidarity among the buyers (which can never be achieved) there will never arise the Situation that not a single copy is sold.
Same goes for the in recent times mostly absurd prices for Deluxe Editions
Paul, don’t forget there was a 3CD/DVD box realeased a couple of years. Both albums remastered, disc of B-sides and remixes + DVD with 5.1 mixes of albums, videos and BBC performances, In Your Room was it called. You haven’t mention about this item but that’s probably Mute decided to go with vinyl box this time.
That set was issued 10 years ago. And is out-of-print and therefore very expensive to find. Hardly justification for not putting this newly remastered set with unreleased content (BBC sessions) on CD.
The set is missing alot of material… and was no way complete.
Alison Clarke. Great name for this thread. Do you also know a Vince Moyet?
The Yazoo box looks neat BUT a better version has been released before on CD/DVD anyway…would rather get that one…as for CD vs vinyl, for me, boxsets with artists’ whole catalogue are better on CD because of bonus tracks and space…they say for vinyl to sound good, you can’t put too much music on each side of a record, and half-speed halves that, sooo to get the maximum contents in a set, that means a LOT of vinyl, which makes it too heavy and too pricey!! Vinyl aint cheap!! So for me, the only vinyl worth having are special Record Store Day titles, special coloured vinyl pieces and specific reissues of fave titles like the clear vinyl of a-ha’s ‘Hunting High & Low’ or the weird-resulting tri-coloured Yes ‘90125’…and for me, this focus on vinyl makes it easier to get CDs for cheap…so I do not mind!!!
I didn’t post on the main thread. But the thing is, I am a huge Yazoo fan, and bought the last box set. (In Your Room – though the big shame there was no Get Set) Thus I think I have all I need thanks and unless EITHER a box or vinyl set had something new on it I just cannot see the point with this one. I see the only solution in these box sets is to do what Fleetwood Mac did and stick CDs in the vinyl box set – or was it Vinyls in a large CD box set! doh….
There is the In Your Room box set available on CD, are people forgetting that?, Okay, it doesn’t contain the session tracks, but it does contain the 5.1 mixes and original 12″ mixes, i don’t remember anyone at the time of that release moaning on about a lack of a vinyl version, there will be a digital version of this release, so it’s still available to people who dont collect vinyl, i agree that the price is a bit steep, but i’ve pre ordered anyway, gotta love a bit of Yazoo ;-)
The “In Your Room”-box is certainly fine, but also OOP and only available for OTT prices unless you’re veeeery lucky. I would like it either to be re-released or a new updated cd-set featuring rare tracks, BBC-sessions and the complete BBC-concert footage but i would also accept box releases of the two original albums plus bonus material.
That’s because that box set was 10 years back when the LP ‘comeback’ (it isn’t a big comeback, but whatever the media want to trot out…) was still to begin. Compact disc probably was outselling vinly at that point by hundreds to one.
Why would anyone have a reasonable complaint with that ratio?
Plus, the this set is way too expensive. I would go for the albums proper for far less and pass on the extras. It’s really just a terrible release regardless of how good the content is.
I have no interest in Yazoo but do find the CD / vinyl debate interesting. Here’s what Alison Moyet News said on Twitter when asked about the box set not being released on CD:
“Unfortunately CDs currently fall in that category of too little demand for something that is costly to manufacture.”
https://mobile.twitter.com/alisonmoyetnews/status/1022397461443371013?s=19
Complete and utter bollocks! It costs next to nothing to manufacture CDs compared to vinyl and there appears to be a lot of demand for it.
She’s obviously not very good at business. You sell it for a price that generates profit. She can thank me for the lesson later.
I would sort of get their intentions if this was a limited run. You know, something like “Limited to 5000 worldwide”. But this is sheer ignorance and stupidity on behalf of both the band and record company.
But, FEAR NOT!! It will also be available via streaming and download services!! Which, quite frankly, is about as much comfort as putting a plaster on a severed limb.
Is it still true this won’t be available in the US – either physically or via download/stream?
Well i buy only cds and CD boxes. I dont have turntable just because ridiculous vinyl prices. Id rather buy Bowie boxes on CD instead of 200 quid vinyl version. Maybe they will change their mind like Yorke. His album Tommorows modern boxes initially was released only on files and vinyl . Now its on CD worldwide