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PLEDGERDOME: ZTT offer Frankie box via PledgeMusic platform

By Paul Sinclair

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66

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The rumoured Frankie Goes To Hollywood Welcome to the Pleasuredome box set has surfaced as an offering on PledgeMusic.com (the direct-to-fan music platform) and will feature a host of previously unreleased material across a number of formats.

The PledgeMusic model allows the rights holder of the music to hedge their bets by dipping their elbow in the bathwater of consumer demand to see if enough people want the product to make it economically viable to produce. Fans ‘pledge’ (i.e. commit) to purchase, and once a target number has been reached, production is confirmed.

Assuming it happens, Inside The Pleasuredome will be a deluxe twelve-inch box set that contains ten bespoke elements.

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“Suck it up”: Relax tape

The content will include printed materials (including a flipbook animation of Lo Cole’s classic artwork, and a 48-page hardcover book exploring the art of Frankie Goes To Hollywood), a DVD compiling the Pleasuredome videos with 5.1 mixes, a remastered double LP of Welcome to the Pleasuredome, three further vinyl EPs (all featuring unreleased music), a 13-track cassette tape of Relax (with five unreleased versions) and a digital EP of instrumentals.

The box also comes with a digital download of all music within, which is handy given that not many people will be able to play that cassette. Curiously there are no CDs at all within this set and it is not clear at this point whether the 5.1 mixes on the DVD are simply video soundtracks, or separate audio-only surround sound mixes.

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10″ vinyl with unreleased remixes

Some elements remain unique to the box set while others are available to be pledged for separately. Unfortunately for those in the US, Canada and Japan this set is not available for you to pledge on due to licensing restrictions.

Less than 24 hours since the project was launched and 30% of the goal has been reached, which looks fairly promising. The box is priced at £85 which includes shipping.

What are your thoughts on this box set? Too much vinyl? Lack of CDs an issue? Leave a comment and let us know!

For more box details and to pledge for “Inside The Pleasuredome” visit PledgeMusic.

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66 Comments

66 thoughts on “PLEDGERDOME: ZTT offer Frankie box via PledgeMusic platform”

  1. Pingback: Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s Welcome to the Pleasuredome to be reissued (again) | superdeluxeedition

  5. It is a great Idea and a nice looking Item, and also a “must have” for any real frankie fan… but…
    No CD within the Box…
    I miss the “Condom”
    And… sorry… but the Cassete tape is only an “Eye Catcher”…

    But, maybe the will have a look at the Comments and Change something…

    Fact is… I buy it!

    ;O)

  6. I think it’s very typical for ZTT to compile a deluxe edition with unexpected formats. Of course I prefer CDs but I love the way ZTT approaches this!

  8. Interesting they are using Pledge and they need a minimum run of close to a 1000. How many did the recent ZTT releases such as Sexmix, the 12 inch compliations and so likely sell then? Apparently not too many…

  9. Great idea!
    Love that they finally unfold this special album.
    But Trevor’s production was all about amazing sound.
    So without high-res Wav or flac then it’s no buy for me.
    And that really makes me sad!
    Paul do you positive know that it will be mp3 or could there be a hope for high-res?
    Thank you for my favorite web-site.

    1. I wouldn’t be surprised if there will be an US edition and a Japan edition later on. Just like they did with ‘the organization of pop’

  11. I’m with Eric on this one. Lossless digital downloads and I’m sold. Otherwise it’s just too much (for me) unplayable material, even if it is nicely coloured/etched/whatever….

  13. I’m another who’s not terribly interested in this set, other than the DVD. Vinyl and cassettes were fine back in 1983, but I had a CD player by 1985. It’ll probably all get released again in a few years anyway…

  14. Hope you get a COA with the signed box set. I used to love the ZTT cassingles fromback in the day, so am not bothered! Can remember the price of the original release on vinyl and cassette being miles higher than anything else, nothing changes

    1. Hi Paul – it’s not too late for them to do anything. As long as they honour the spec as it exists, if they decided to add a set of CDs then all the better. Nothing goes into production until they reached the 100% pledge goal, so this is one situation where it is really worth leaving feedback because the really do have time to consider tweaks and changes!

      You can also leave your views here
      http://www.pledgemusic.com/artists/frankiegoestohollywood/discussion

  17. @Cal – for me, the digital content isn’t the issue. Whatever files they are I’m not willing to pay £85 for some mp3s and then shelve the box. I just want to buy the set in my favoured format.

  19. I can only agree with the opinion of some readers here, that vinyl releases gain too much importance in recent years. Of course, vinyl is nice and everything but let’s be honest: isn’t the point in (re-) releasing stuff from the 80s to make them digitally available? I would buy this FGTH box right now if all the audio content was on CD but vinyl?

    Also: as much as I like all this Record Store Day vinyl releases, I would still prefer CD releases hands down. As a fan of the band Garbage, this is really annoying as the release many songs, remixes only on vinyl or inferior downloads, but why not do CD releases on Record Store Day? Or give the buyer a choice if he prefers vinyl or CD releases? For me, vinyl is more or less a dustcatcher in my flat, nice to look at but rarely listend to… Give us more CD releases!

  20. I am a big fan of all ZTT product, especially FGTH, Propaganda, Art of Noise etc. This boxset is look amazing, really been waiting a long time to actually see this release. But very disappointed the boxset has no CDs, its fine the download is included, still not the same to have CDs in a card sleeve.

  22. Done the vinyl thing when there was nothing else,lack of CD a deal breaker,and i still have all the cassingles in the loft,a shame.

  23. Sorry but i cannot feel sorry for the Japanese market, they’ve had more than the Europeans in extra for years!

    The original press release mentioned that one of the vinyls would have two versions of Slave to the Rhythm, now listed as tbc. Intriguing which shows the box contents may be subject to change before October.

  25. I jumped on this straight away when I seen it yesterday evening.

    I was lucky enough to be one of the first 100 to pledge and have a confirmed signed box by Trevor Horn.

    I also grabbed a LP test pressing as well, that will be a nice little investment piece and also is a good companion for the box set (maybe it will fit in the box alongside the other items)

    As for the box itself, I like the content, it’s jam packed with plenty of goodies and the price point is superb. Vinyl is my preferred method of playing music, if i’m in the house i’m spinning records, if i’m out and about it’s digital for me, so this ticks all the boxes for me.

  26. Chris Lancaster and dominic , I think that you were able to add more money to your pledge at the checkout. Probably too late now though ;-)

    1. Aww shucks, i must have missed that. What a shame I can’t do it now, I’ve gone & spent the rest of my pocket money on an Action Man & a remote control car! ;-)

  30. ZTT didn’t sell out their box set at Record Store Day? Well, I’d be happy to get my hands on a copy if I could. That’s the odd thing about Record Store Day: items don’t end up where they should: in the hands of buyers.

  32. A cassette? Really? I think I have enough useless nick-knacks around the house already. Plus, at that price tag there’s not nearly enough new music (not to mention the lack of CDs) to get me to buy this. It gets a big NO from me. (Although I must say I’m dying to hear the remix that evolved into an Art of Noise track.)

  33. To the US: Please, we do not like dollars…

    Not going to have one I guess, as I will not fight the secondary market (eBay) for a copy…

    sad.

  34. Cant view the actual website just yet, if the unreleased stuff is genuine 80’s material and not some 90’s unreleased remix then i’m in. Mixed feeliings on the 2010 deluxe bonus disc though so it needs entice me more that that did

  35. Sad that Canada isn’t included. Don’t really care that there are no CDs as Frankie was supposed to be played on vinyl, especially 12″ at 45rpm.

  36. Very, very sad about no US for pledgers, so no chance to get one signed by Trevor Horn, or one of the white labels. However, the wording “Once the target at the top of this page reaches 100% we will have enough pre-orders and we can make all the items in this campaign” is ambiguous as to whether this would be purchasable somewhere outside of this pledge drive after it was over. Maybe then us US/Canada/Japan buyers will have a shot.

    Paul, can you find out? I would have pledged at the price given, but I’m not going to pay 2x on eBay for it.

  37. Release date (TBC): until 20 October, 2014
    This is stated at the bottom of the invoice: “Frankie Goes To Hollywood has pledged to fulfill all exclusives by 20 October, 2014 unless otherwise stated.” Otherwise was not stated yet.

  39. I didn’t realise you could have too much vinyl!

    Seriously though, I’m very excited about this and have pledged for the box. Vinyl with digital copies included is my preferred method of buying music and am pleased it seems to be on the increase.

    I’m surprised at the level of online grumbling about the price and content, compared to the recent Oasis box set, and others, it’s extremely good value, but that’s the interweb for you. Personally, I’m with Chris Lancaster above and maybe would have even paid a little more!

    I do however feel for our North American & Japanese cousins, international licensing agreements seem to be more about restricting & disouraging the release of music/products/services rather than encouraging it.

    1. p.s. I’ve looking forward to SDE’s take on this since the announcement was made, just the term ‘Pledgerdome’ was worth the wait.

    1. As a regular of the ZTT fan forums, there have been rumours of box sets for many years, and the reason the label (or it’s licencees) have not gone ahead has repeatedly leaked back to us as ‘we’re not sure it would sell enough’. From the pledge target I think around 750-900 is the minimum quantity they have set before the project happens, and the recent record store day ZTT set in the US didn’t sell out of it’s 1000 run, so I think they can justify being cautious.

      1. I think that’s fair enough. From a consumer point of I don’t think it makes too much difference how they do it. The main issue is if you’re in Japan or the US, because if this had been produced and distributed in the traditional way it would have ended up on Amazon UK and therefore been available for purchase worldwide, regardless of ‘rights’ issues.

      2. As someone in the US who bought the RSD box set (how do we know it didn’t sell out?), and as well-done and delightful as it was, if ZTT spent its licensing chits on that box rather than licensing this box for the US/Canada/Japan, I think they backed the wrong horse.

        Besides, the whole point of PledgeMusic is to ensure there’s enough interest to make something, so lack of interest in the RSD box shouldn’t be a factor here. They could have included additional licensing costs for US/Canada/Japan pledgers (hide it in the shipping costs) to see whether it would have been worth it or not.

  47. The beauty of working with the PledgeMusic methodology is the label in question can offer the fans way, way more than simply putting out a set like this in a so-called conventional manner.

    I run a small label and, having worked with the people at PledgeMusic, can happily say… its not about hedging any bets (!)… it really is about offering the real fans something of worth – hence, what I’d term enhanced editions… the basic edition of release X… +.

    This… as I see it… is all about value for money – and your excellent blog has more than enough people pointing out that release X or Y does not offer that (whereby they feel ripped off) and its a pointer to the people who compile lavish sets to not become complacent… recognise the fans require (and deserve) quality and a decent bang for their buck.

    The Frankie release looks (on a quick peruse) great… the only bit I can’t fathom out is the licensing restrictions that means its unavailable to big chunks of the world… in a market that is global (otherwise whats the point) this simply doesn’t make sense and will cause a good deal of annoyance to consumers. Plus, feed straight in to the hands of the eBay marketeers (just as RSD, unhappily) did).

    1. Anyone who has ever worked with ZTT will know they have different license deals for N.America and Japan with companies other than Union Square no doubt have offered to these distributers who decided they wanted a different product for their territories or didn’t want to share the cost.

  48. The thinking behind this is that it’s a celebration of the Pleasuredome – we’ve been spoilt with CD reissues for year now with only a handful of vinyl and this really deserves more than a CD box set. It’s also in the spirit of the original in every way, which is why there is a cassette and the original art themes are being expanded upon.
    What Paul didn’t mention above is 2 12″x12″ prints of Lo Cole’s front and back cover images (with the back uncensored) and 1 12″x36″ poster of the inner gate fold image – all scanned from the original art.

    1. I agree that cassettes are in the ‘spirit’ of the original era but I do think it’s a little bit pointless. 99.9% of people won’t have the ability to play it.

      The box is this wonderful PHYSICAL product, but at least two major elements – the instrumentals and the 13-track Relax cassette – will have to be played via digital files on a computer.

      A CD in a simple card wallet offering Relax EP and/or the instrumentals and/or the content on the vinyl records would have been relatively cheap to do (especially compared to some of the other elements within), so I’m left to conclude that cost wasn’t the driving factor. More likely putting all the content on companion CDs robs ZTT/Salvo of an opportunity to reformat some of this content on *another* deluxe CD set of some description and be able to claim “first time on CD”.

      To summarise, this set looks great and it is reasonable value BUT in my opinion there is no place for a ‘digital EP’ in a physical product (the instrumentals) and not repeating the vinyl and tape content on CD is rather churlish. Either have a vinyl AND a CD version, or have one box that covers both, but to ignore the needs of anyone who doesn’t have a turntable seems crazy.

      I can’t think of any big mainstream album that has been issued as a ‘super deluxe’ box set without any CD content at all. The fact that this is being done through PledgeMusic demonstrates a level of uncertainty as to what the demand would be like, so you’d think they’d try and maximise the appeal. Very, very strange.

      1. The way I hear it, all the music available in the Box Set will be available as hi-res downloads. So fans can burn their CD’s and play them on the CD player.
        The 5 track Digital EP is exclusive to Pledgers – a reward I suppose for using the platform and effectively pre-ordering way ahead of release.
        So not really “very, very, strange” quite simple really actually.

  49. I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing, albums continually being re-released with all this extra stuff that in SOME cases just isn’t worth the bother. I mean with this for instance, how many mixes of Relax etc does anyone need? The ones that have been so far released are great…. but when is enough enough? Every fart ever made in the studio FINALLY YOURS! Crazy….

  51. I’m disappointed at there being no CD option. The beauty of PledgeMusic (having pledged for items from them in the past) is that an artist can put up anything for sale and if doesn’t hit the target, it doesn’t get made – simple! With that in mind, surely a CD box is a viable option. If the uptake is low, fair enough, it doesn’t get made. However, if the option is there, with a price tag to cover the cost of manufacture, what have they got to lose. Believe me, there’s no pun intended when I say the world is their oyster! As it stands, I can’t go for a vinyl only box set – I know downloads are included but I can’t pay £85 for some mp3s. If you have ZTT’s ear, Paul…..

  52. Well, I think anyone that knows me, knows what I think about this…

    PROPER ECSTATIC!!! ;-)

    This looks to be an amazing collection of artifacts and a proper example of how to do a deluxe box set. Comparing it to the recent Oasis box is kind of insulting!

    From what I can gather, the 5.1 mixes are indeed audio only and are the same mixes featured on the Rage Hard SACD collection. If so, this means there will be 9 tracks from the Pleasuredome era, which will be nice to have. I do wish they’d just reissue that whole compilation on Blu Ray Audio though. Better still, a new and full 5.1 reworking of the album would be amazing.

    The lack of CD is unusual, but if everything in the box is being made available as a download, people can burn their own if necessary?

    But this looks amazing and I was in, early doors, so will hopefully get a signed copy.

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