Single Vote View

(Created on 23rd March 2008)

Vote #39

The following question was presented:

As many of you may have noticed, I added a few CDs to the RagBox this week (Edit - RagBox removed from site). Now, what I realized when I bought the CDs online was that I seemed to be going for the “limited edition” versions of each album where one was available. I looked through my collection (well, the stuff I have here in the States) and noticed that I had rather a large number of “limited edition” CDs. Basically, I doubt there's much of a limited nature of these - limited to the number of people who want to buy them perhaps. Additionally, what else do you get? Some sort of trinket (bottle openers, ticket stubs, key chains ...) and a DVD where the band is recording one or two of the songs that you'll watch maybe once. All for double the price of the basic CD that has on it the only bits you really want.

So I reach out to all of you to find out what you do and so this week's question is - do you buy the “limited edition” versions of CDs/DVDs when available?

Results:

Yes was the clear winner with 80% of the votes selected from the following:

Yes (80%)
No (20%)
Nothing I like has been limited (0%)
I don’t buy CDs/DVDs (0%)

Graphic of Results:

Pre-Result Discussion

XXX
02:30:10
24th March 2008

It’s one of those weird things that’s designed to annoy the true fans of a band. Let’s face it, you want to buy an album as soon as it comes out if you really like an artist, yet about 6 months later they bring out a special limited edition version with bonus tracks that are not available on any other album, or even worse a "best of" album with two new exclusive tracks along 20 other songs that you have across the rest. And they wonder why people constantly illegally download music, it’s for those exclusive tracks that they don’t want to pay £10/$20 for the one song and don’t want to pay Apple for the i-pod version as they don’t want to be tied to that format.

That said, I have been known to fall into the trap of buying the special limited editions with the bonus DVD, take the CD out of the case, put it in the car and then forget about the DVD completely and it’s never to be seen again.

Let’s face it, it’s another way to part you from your money, it’s all sizzle and no sausage as an ex-colleague of mine would say.

Analysis:

Very good observations by Triple X above. Yes, 'tis all a scam to get you to part with your money, but we're all suckers when it comes to the bands we love as you just don't want to miss out on those one or two tracks that are on the best of album. Even though they are demo versions that the band made when they were drunk and most of the time you can hear someone laughing in the background (or is that just the music I listen to).

I do, however, feel very sad for Triple X's friend's loss of sausage. I thought I was having a bad run of luck going in and out of hospital, but at least my sausage remains intact. Guess the friend won't be doing much going in and out of anything.

Congrats to those of you that have the will power to hold off from these tricks. Either you're smart enough to not be suckered or you just download the songs you want rather than buying albums in the first place.