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What’s the colour of money? McCartney limited edition vinyl hits the wallet hard

Last year Paul McCartney moved labels from Concord to Capitol Records, with Flowers in the Dirt being his first Archive Collection reissue with the famous American label. Now Capitol are taking the opportunity to reissue the remasters that have been put out over the last seven years, as ‘vanilla’ CD and vinyl releases with no bonus tracks. However, they haven’t missed the opportunity to tempt fans who’ve bought everything already, with some limited edition coloured vinyl pressings of all eight studio albums.

So while the single CD digipak and 180gram black vinyl single LP formats might leave you a bit ‘meh’, the limited edition coloured vinyl pressings look ace. One bonus is that they will be the only vinyl issues of the remasters that don’t have that annoying ‘Paul McCartney Archive Collection’ strip on the left hand side. The only trouble is, they are scandalously expensive, particularly in the UK.


Update 20.30 6/10/17: The information below has now changed. At 17.20 today all the overpriced vinyl was taken down. After pulling all the listings down, all eight of these McCartney records are now back up at £29.99 everywhere they are available in the UK. An improvement on £35, £43 and £52 but it’s still an £8 premium for coloured vinyl instead of black. I’m disappointed in this strategy of dual-pricing which just comes across as rather greedy. I say this not as just an observer, but as a retailer myself. When I sold 500 signed Sam Brown box sets on the SDE shop, there was no premium over the standard sets, despite the fact that it created a lot of extra work to get the sets signed and to open and re-pack every box set. Team Macca is making a profit on black vinyl priced at £21.99. The £29.99 price point is simply about making even more profit and feels a bit exploitative, given that vinyl copies of these albums have already been marketed to the core audience over the last six or seven years. – Paul, SDE.


You can only buy the coloured vinyl pressings at specific online shops, including The Sound Of Vinyl, uDiscoverMusic and Recordstore.co.uk (all in the UK). However, on both of these sites while the non-limited black vinyl is priced between £18.99 to £23.99 – not particularly cheap to start with – the retailers have added a huge premium for the coloured vinyl pressings. They are all £34.99 each, with the exception of Band on the Run which is an unbelievable £42.99!

For some reason, both uDiscover in the UK and The Sound Of Vinyl have neither Venus and Mars nor Wings at the Speed of Sound listed, but at Recordstore.co.uk the red/yellow vinyl copy of Venus and Mars is – wait for it – £51.99! I will remind you that this is ONE vinyl record we are talking about. It means the cost of buying all eight coloured vinyl pressings is £305.


Together, the two colour vinyl pressings of Venus and Mars and Band on the Run will cost UK fans £96!

Unlike the UK, the US uDiscover site has a bundle to buy all eight coloured pressings for $240, which equates to around £185 – over £120 less than in Britain. However any plans to buy these to ship to the UK will be thwarted since the site doesn’t deliver internationally.

I’m aware that this is another post on SDE that’s being quite critical of McCartney, but these prices are simply crazy. As way of comparison, the double LP glow-in-the-dark gatefold vinyl package of Michael Jackson’s Scream is £22 on the SDE shop. It’s starting to feel like a long time since Paul McCartney release ‘got it right’ either in terms of pricing or content.

Black vinyl LPs, coloured vinyl LPs and CD editions of these albums (see list below) will be released on 17 November 2017.

Albums being reissued by Capitol

  1. McCartney (1970). Limited version is RED vinyl
  2. RAM (1971). Limited version is YELLOW vinyl
  3. Band on the Run (1973). Limited version is WHITE vinyl
  4. Venus and Mars (1975). Limited version is RED and YELLOW vinyl
  5. Wings at the Speed of Sound (1976). Limited version is ORANGE vinyl
  6. McCartney II (1980). Limited version is CLEAR vinyl
  7. Tug of War (1982). Limited version is BLUE vinyl
  8. Pipes of Peace (1983). Limited version is SILVER vinyl

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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[…] Six and a half years later, in November 2017 the album was one of eight Paul McCartney long-players reissued as a limited edition coloured vinyl pressing, with McCartney pressed on red […]

Catweazle

Just received my yellow ‘Ram’ – must be the ugliest yellow vinyl in my collection (in fact it’s sort of greenish)!

Mick

All of the individual titles have just been added to the U.S. udiscovermusic: https://us.udiscovermusic.com/
The coloured are $30.00 + shipping each and the black are $20.00 + shipping each.
I just ordered the 4 titles I wanted.
Interesting that udiscovermusic prices usually include shipping, but these Macca LP’s (including the bundles) all have an additional shipping fee. Clearly Mr. McCartney and Capitol are under the mistaken impression we all have money trees in our yards.
I just hope they arrive, as I’ve had trouble dealing with udiscovermusic recently.

Mark

Paul – The US site of Universal seems to have the bundle

https://us.udiscovermusic.com/paul-mccartney-8lp-exclusive-color-vinyl-bundle.html

just ordered mine – seems to have worked well.

Best, Mark

Louise

All seems like a bit of a PR faff all round. I only really wanted ATSOS on Orange (which I think I’ve got, altho’ knowing Universal it’ll probably get cancelled) and V&M which was sold out. Clearly the bundles were just standard price as they knew they’d sell anyway without any discount enticement. Just goes to show, price them properly and they’ll sell! My email arrived at 10.23 from Universal btw…

Dr Michael Leek

Presenile dementia…

Sean L

Lots sold out…..unusually quick considering I looked 1o minutes after receiving the email????

Dr Michael Leek

V&M coloured sold out on udiscovermusic already.
Maybe this is really ‘limited’ after all (until the next pressing…

richard
Chris Squires

All up on the various Universal sites again at £26 for the coloured variants. The “Special Bundle” is really hard to work out. It offers all 8 albums in a bundle at the special price of £208, which if my O level maths is correct is 8 x £26…. so there is absolutely zero discount or incentive to buy the bundle yet it clearly states “Sold out”. You would have thought the bundle would be less than £200….. “Buy more and save Nothing”

Kevin S

Recordstore have the coloured vinyl up for sale
All at £26.00. Looks like the ‘bundle’ of all eight albums for £200+ has gone.

Link for V&M Red/Yellow

http://www.recordstore.co.uk/recordstore/Coming-Soon/Venus-and-Mars-Limited-Edition-Red-Yellow-Vinyl/5OUF0E3I000

Kevin S

However it appears unavailable??

Carl Homes

The links are now working on the McCartney site. uDiscover have a link to the coloured vinyls at £26 and Amazon have a link to the black at various prices. Some of them more than the coloured vinyl!.

Chris Squires

Something can’t be right. I got an email that came in live so to speak as I was on my PC, I went straight to the relevant sites and it was already showing sold out at the glorious saving of nowt. Everything else is functioning as stand alone except Band on the Run which also shows sold out.

Either was never available or sold out in seconds….. hmmmm fishy.

Michael Leek

When the price on Amazon dropped to £20 (yes Paul agreed, must be black), got red/yellow V&M from platenzaakvinyl.merchandise-entertainment.com.
Yup, I’m a (happy) sucker…

Dr Michael Leek

Ordered V&M on amazonUK for £35, if it’s black, it’s too much and will send back…

Roy

Unfortunately I think it will be black. Amazon UK now has a black record showing. Venus seems to be £35 in the UK everywhere, I guess it must be the packaging.

Louise

Pledge has just announced its selling all the black vinyl & CD’s for about £19 each (vinyl) or £11 CD, plus postage… No sign of the coloured vinyl versions though. Maybe they’re an urban myth

Kevin S

PledgeMusic have the following on ‘offer’:

“Archive Collection

Paul McCartney’s critically acclaimed and multiple Grammy Award-winning Archive Collection will offer fans another chance to complete their collections on November 17, 2017. That date will see the MPL/Capitol/UMe reissues of the first eight Archive Collection titles in affordable single CD digipak and 180 gram black vinyl single LP formats. All vinyl LPs in the Archive Collection will feature a download card and fully restored artwork”.

Single vinyl and single cd.

No mention of coloured vinyl and haven’t the ‘Archive Collection’ albums so far all been released on vinyl along with the relevant cd boxed sets as they came out?

Is there a demand/need for single disc versions?

Scott Sparks

Supposedly these will have the original artwork without the ‘Archive Collection’ strip on the left side which is what kept me away from them

Tony Orwell

Am I being cynical or could it be that the record company I fuelling the hype by giving mis-information to ensure we keep talking about it. You would hope that McCartney’s supply chain would have their act together before they make the announcements, let’s face it nobody in the business thoughts that the 50th anniversary ‘withdrawn’ love me do single was anything other than a marketing ploy.

Paul Spurgeon

It’s become a farce when it needn’t have been. If they’d just reduced them to £20 each (which is fair) then I along with many others would of bought most of them.

Carl Homes

I’m amazed at how amateurish the whole thing has been. If the error had been rectified within a day or so, then the whole episode would have been forgotten about and people would have moved on. To leave fans hanging on without a clue as to when, where and IF they will be able to purchased the advertised products is inexcusable.

Chris Squires

If the recent trend continues you will possibly get the response….”It was meant to be like this, we were trying to recreate the feeling of how it would have been in the pre-internet days, going back to the original, earliest available marketing strategies” – rather than what everybody thinks “We screwed up – sorry”.

Mick

Update:
SoundStageDirect has now removed the coloured versions from their pre-order page
https://www.soundstagedirect.com/preorder.shtml?artist%5B%5D=Paul+McCartney+And+Wings&artist%5B%5D=Paul+McCartney&sortby=price_desc
What IS going on with these?!

Scott Sparks
Auntie Sabrina

£31.30

Wouter

Universal Music just announced that in The Netherlands these titles will be exclusively available through http://www.platenzaak.nl. Each title sells at € 34,99 incl. shipping.

Scott Sparks

I don’t see the colored vinyl (only the black) on soundstagedirect.com anymore. But my order status is “Processing”

Tony Orwell

Pricing is always going to be what the market will stand, blondies pollinator on red £15 from the blondie web site, both bowie gold vinyl’s £14 from Sainsbury’s so even with these top draw artists they are able to produce these items and make money at the middle teens. The bowie pressings are maybe not top drawn but the blondie is a superb heavyweight pressing with printed inner sleeve and download code.
So, the question is, how much are we willing to pay?
I think if they have advertised these as a limited run of 500 or 1000 for each title they would have been sold out pretty much before they went on sale, but as far as I can see we do not know how many are pressed.
There is a limited number of fans who will pay regardless and the record store days have now found that out. Last record store day, anything limited to 1000 of a recognised collectable artist sold out quickly and in the short term were selling for a premium on auction sites. However, titles by mega artists like Iron maiden for example where 4000 were pressed I could have gone into my local independent store and buy them for at least a month at the retail price.
It will not be a big surprise to most that a massive majority of limited editions bought are snapped up by dealers or by people who think their purchase will increase in value so it is a tightrope that the companies walk when trying to price an item, they don’t want to give it away but then again, they don’t want the racks stacked with ‘unsellable’ limited editions. (ask HMV).
This year’s RSD the companies tried to push the boundaries too far charging £20 for a 7″ black vinyl single and £30 for a 7″ shaped picture disc and some of them are still in the racks unsold so I think they are gradually going to get the message.
Recent releases and pre- orders have become laughable with the amount of coloured vinyl options available and this can only be because they feel the market will stand it and pay up, after all why would Morrissey release 1 album with 6 different coloured vinyl’s, if he want to offer a limited edition why not just press one extra colour?
I think over the last 10 years we have all become conditioned to assume that unless we buy it quickly we will miss out and have to pay double or treble on eBay and when things were truly limited this was the case.
These days I think the vinyl pressings must be increasing the numbers and instead of a vinyl album being considered to be a limited edition soon to be deleted they will be back to the days of £10 for an album for people to listen to.
Having said all of the above, I have bought all the Morrissey’s, David Bowies, Blondies and every other limited edition that has come out by a major artist so maybe those of us who buy are the biggest problem.
As always Paul, thanks for this awesome site.

Sean Davis

Mega artists iron maiden..lol

Chris Squires

Yes Richard. “Much price checking” equates to an “SDE Deal alert” preferably something some way south of 20 quid.

The other thing to note, and it’s a frequent question here. What constitutes “limited edition”?
What I have found is that if a limited edition is truly a small run “Limited Edition”, the kind that makes you feel the warm glow, then the companies are quite quick to tell you. 500, 750, 1,000, 1,500…. that kind of thing will be broadcast. Music on Vinyl always tell you how limited is “limited” and they number their editions. I like that model.
With no proof whatsoever I also get the feeling that some companies will call anything limited, and strictly they are right, but if something is “limited edition” in my book there should be a fixed, low and known number. Not variable, high or unknown. And there certainly shouldn’t be a second identical pressing a la Queen studio albums coloured collection. Second pressing is fine as long as it is clearly different, like a book. All books have edition numbers. Saying something is limited and having 10,000 copies, then re-pressing identically is akin to fraud in my book. I know some here see collecting as some kind of elitist thing that should be outlawed but it is a kind of unwritten contract between label and punter. I have bought limited editions that I possibly wouldn’t have bought if it were bog-standard ….. that’s why companies make limited edition anything (books, cars, turntables, LPs, chocolate bars etc.) once that trust is broken and the words “Limited Edition” mean nothing we are less likely to jump in and buy.

richard

Must admit I’m a sucker for coloured vinyl, patiently waiting for Sandinista and Combat Rock by The Clash to get a coloured release ( all ready have several versions ). If I was a Macca fan I’d probably get the lot but only after much price checking online.

Arnd

With respect, I do not see the point of complaining about the price of a luxury product – and a coloured vinyl record definitely is -, even calling it scandalous.

We are not talking about apartment rents or public transportation prices here.

If it’s too expensive, I am fine with that and will not buy it. I am also fine with everyone willing to buy it anyway.

My humble opinion.

Cris

Exactly.
Maybe I wrote this before, however:
– The record industry self-destroyed itself forcing the introduction of f*** CDs (which were certainly not indestructible, btw)
– We had our hard times (you guys living in the UK have no idea what it has meant to try to find import vinyls, which in any case had been reduced in amount everywhere, in Italy)
– In any case, at least they cost less than CDs, so we had also a bit of convenience aer so much hardship in the search
– The industry went even further in its auto ball-cutting, favouring streaming and dowloads, de facto cancelling the so called “support” with which music is distributed, which we love so much
– Thanks to us, there has been a resurgence of vinyl
– The industry realised they had an undeserved way to save their arses
– They started raising prices. They also started printing double LPs as an excuse.
– Fierce, I am now boycotting them and waiting to buy a record until it has not reached the price I judge is fair, or buying from the honest “channels”/”contacts” I have established during the hard period (i. e.: still haven’ t bought DM’ s Spirit nor the two recent 12″s, which require a good price reduction, even on Amazon)
And that was that.

But now for the first time, with this overproduction leading to bad pressings, or mastering, or other, and with this absurdity in fixing such ridiculous prices with such nerve and without justification, I am starting to me fear that it might all crumble down again after the hype. AGAIN the industry is going to spoil everything by greedily wanting to milk people of as much money as possible here and now, instead of carefully cultivating the unexpected and undeserved help they received from out of the blue with good issues and honest prices.
Of course I cannot envisage an alternative and futuristic support, but still I am starting to wonder where all this frenetic nonsense of issuing and pricing will lead us… I am starting to get nauseated.

Cris

Sorry lots of typing mistakes, I wrote this in an impetus of indignation.

Greig S

The sad thing about issues like this is that even if it cost 400 quid for one coloured vinyl LP, someone somewhere would still pay that amount.

I absolutely love this website and how it calls a spade a spade when reporting on these things whether it might upset the artist or not, and we all know that is not your intention. You simply report the facts.

Keep up the good work, Paul – You are the voice of the ordinary folks!

Andy

What planet is Macca living on, £43 for Band on the Run, ha I picked up a mint copy with poster for £1.50 bout a decade ago. I can spray it white if needs be, still be £40.50 cheaper if i factor in the £2.00 spray paint.

Trash

Hi Paul –
Quick question: are the black vinyl versions of these actually available on Amazon yet?
The vinyl editions of Band on the Run and Tug of War that are listed (on Amazon UK at least) seem to be dated 2010 so I presume those aren’t these (or do the dates refer to the remaster dates rather than release dates).

Thanks Paul

John Higney

Capitol are ramping up the McCartney discs with his blessing they will have to pay the legal costs for any litigation in his 50 year old return to owner copyright claim its obvious that he dumped Conchord Records for that reason they probably weren’t big enough to take on Sony and the Jackson family.So Paul gets his revenge at no cost for his back catalogue and passes the costs on to his fans wrong decision Paul.

Bob

Its no secret that McCartney is so tight his butt squeaks when he walks .

Kenneth Tilley

LOL

Scott Sparks

I’m confused on the artwork. On one hand as Paul states here referring to the colored vinyl pressings: “they will be the only vinyl issues of the remasters that don’t have that annoying Paul McCartney Archive Collection strip on the left hand side”

But on McCartney’s web site it states: “All vinyl LPs in the Archive Collection will feature a download card and fully restored artwork”

Scott Sparks

It’s my impression that if the black vinyls have the Archive Collection strip on the left side then it’s not fully restored art work.

Charlie Waffles

I guess Mac has to pay that ex wife some more money…

voxstarstream

Sound Stage Direct states “item not eligible for further discount”

Mark

Thanks Paul. Amazing Site by the way. Regards from Germany!

Mark

This link leads directly to the US Amazon store – no mention though if these are the coloured ones – good preorder price though 19.98 $

https://www.paulmccartney.com/news-blogs/news/the-paul-mccartney-archive-collection-eight-titles-to-be-re-released

Jan Spring in ,t Veld

Is there anybody who knows something of a boxset off Ringo Starr. That’s what i am interrested in for now instead off those amazing expencive Macca releases.

Tom M

Still listed at MusicVaultz (the Canadian version of uDiscover)
http://shop.musicvaultz.com/*/Vinyl/

Craig H

Bad math, $23.99 each after 20% discount. Too early here in California!

Craig H

The colored vinyl are available at SoundStage Direct for US $29.99 each with 20% discount using promo code LP20 at checkput, bringing them down to $24.99 each.

Mick

But there’s no indication that these are the coloured vinyl. Likely they’re not.

Scott Sparks

The black vinyls are $19.99 and colored vinyls are $27.89 but it didn’t let me applied the promo code. Still $27 seems like a good deal. I just ordered the 1st 4.

Kenneth Tilley

Ahh poor Paul he must be short of a few pounds

Tony

Does a prettily coloured vinyl play any better than a black vinyl? When I grew up in the 60’s we bought records for the music and what was on the album cover. And that seems to be getting lost. Coloured vinyl is a cynical ploy to make you buy the same thing yet again. If you buy just to make money you aren’t going to play it cos that devalues the disc. I can see demo takes etc as extras. They can be interesting. But coloured vinyl at a premium – no. Waste of money and the only people who make a profit is the record label and artist.

[…] I posted about this rip-off and within the hour all the limited vinyl had been pulled from the listings, only to return about an hour later at a ‘new’ price of £29.99. But even that didn’t last long and now none of the sites which listed them yesterday (uDiscover USA, uDiscover UK, The Sound Of Vinyl and RecordStore.co.uk) have any of the coloured vinyl listed at all. Which either means they’ve sold out almost instantaneously (seems unlikely, even for Paul), or McCartney’s team are having a re-think. Unlike with David Bowie, the criticism was almost unanimous. Charging close to £10 extra just because it’s a coloured pressing did not go down at all well with fans. […]

gary oliver

i suppose they could rotate the eight colours and some people would buy all eight rotations

Kauwgompie

His box sets are all overpriced, then he released the last boxset, Flowers In The Dirt, and that one is SO overpriced you think it comes with a gold bar. Now these vinyls, no I have lost every shred of respect for Macca. And these albums are all very average anyway, except for BOTR.

Tony

A lot of milking going on. Would far prefer he re-released vinyl albums which haven’t come out on the archive series such as RRS & London Town. Straight reissue like the Elton John is doing. Otherwise I may well be dead before they come out. And vinyl does sound different…

Auntie Sabrina

HMV currently plan to charge £23.99, £27.99 and £29.99 depending on the title you want but these may, or probably are the black vinyl editions.