What Happened to the Album

Every week dozens of new albums are released in stores and online. More and more often I'm seeing options for purchasing the "deluxe version" of said record featuring between one and ten additional tracks. Now, as a music collector, of course I want the additional tracks. But as a purist, I hate the fact that additional songs are tacked onto the end of the album which should be a singular thought.

The fact is that most records are not a singular thought. They are just the best ten tracks out of the forty that were written between the last album and the new one. At that point, the message of the album isn't being watered down by the additional "bonus" tracks.

I want a record to make a statement. I want it to have a theme. I want there to be some unifying principle beyond, "hey, we're a band and we record songs, so here's some songs that are hopefully decent." Sure, I want to hear your cover version of Justin Bieber, but if you tack it onto the end of a rousing journey that we've just gone on, you kind of shoot yourself in the foot.

The other possibility/fear is that if I don't buy the deluxe version, I'm not getting the entire story.

At the end of the day, I know it's all about money. What can we do to get people to spend more for relatively little cost to us? I don't like that. Make a record that says something. Let it stand on it's own two legs. Release some bonus tracks (that can be purchased individually) separately. Don't take advantage of your fans. It's not nice for one, but it also makes me think that you lack faith in your own product.