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box set sucker

  • 14-03-2014 9:35pm
    #1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 430 ✭✭ Wyatt Prehistoric Canvas


    Anyone else here stupid enough to pay over the odds for lavish box set editions of albums they already own? Despite being a man of modest wealth, I have spent hundreds on the likes of Achtung Baby ,The Stone Roses,Mellon Collie and the infinite sadness..

    Some come with Vinyl (don`t even own a record player )badges,key rings and other tat I don`t need. Remastered basically means louder. When they arrive at the door, I pore slavishly over them for half an hour and then watch them gather dust for months on end.

    The upcoming Definitely Maybe boxset incudes an essential...shopping bag.
    Yes.I`ve pre-ordered it. Now I see Soundgarden are releasing Superunknown with loads of b-sides and demos that I will never listen to,but I know I`ll end up forking out for that too.

    Please let me justify this sad addiction by telling me I`m not alone.


Comments

  • Closed Accounts Posts: 469 ✭✭GoldenTickets


    You're definitely not alone. But as a recovering spendthrift and someone who wasted many years and euro buying box sets and various other limited releases (promo CD singles were a particular vice), I would urge you to become very selective in what you fork out for. I buy very little nowadays and my collection is modest, but I listen to everything in it regularly.

    There are great sets released from time to time which totally justify hefty price-tags, but it's exactly the kind of tat you've mentioned yourself that makes a joke of box sets. Just recently I saw a box set of 4 Janis Joplin 7" singles that came with a "temporary tattoo replica of Janis' tattoo". I mean come on, anyone who puts a value on this kind of garbage needs to ask themselves some serious questions.

    It's not about the music with this kind of set, it's about making people feel they're missing out on something if they don't buy it by using terms like "limited edition", "collectable", "numbered", "rare recordings", "previously unreleased", "hand-written lyric sheet" and so on. "Previously unreleased" is a meaningless term since the tracks have now been released, and I have yet to see a case where "hand-written" actually means hand-written.

    The suggestion that the item might not be available after a certain period of time drives people to hand over money for things they'd never buy if they could get it any time. We're living in an age where things are being marketed as collectable the minute they're manufactured, it never used to work like that and it's a totally false economy. Try shifting them second hand and you'll see that.

    I think box sets are fair enough if people are buying them because they really want the contents, but I think the way most box sets are pitched means people buy them in a fit of pique (or even anxiety) rather than after careful consideration, which is odd given how expensive they often are. And the non-musical contents - be they tote bags, plectrums, postcards, keyrings, even posters or t-shirts - are almost never used because that would "break up the set". People treat them as museum pieces, and you have to ask what is the point of filling your shelves with stuff like this unless you really want it? Would you buy a keyring or set of postcards of your favourite band if it wasn't in a box set? Probably not.

    Decent box sets are great, but they're almost always the ones that contain discs of music and little else. I would say if the set doesn't stand up on the quality of the music it contains then swerve it, and if you already have the music then save your money for a set that contains music you don't have.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,863 ✭✭✭seachto7


    If you haven't heard the B sides for Superunknown, it's worth getting the 2 CD reissue, don't bother with the 4 CD one.


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