NEW YORK (Music
Industry magazine) - When The Strokes'
Is This It landed in stores last year, the CD had 11 songs, and that
was it. But this fall RCA rereleased the album, packaged with a bonus DVD of videos at the same price.
Just in time for the holidays, a sleighful of limited-edition CDs, both new and rereleases, are landing in stores with bonus discs that � sometimes for a few dollars more � give music listeners the kind of extras movie fans have become accustomed to on DVD.
The music industry is adding exclusive material in hopes of boosting sales, which have skidded in the past two years as online music sharing and CD recording have become widespread.
"The music business is trying to find ways to get people to understand the value they are getting when they buy CDs rather than downloading or burning them," says Jeff Jones, head of Sony's Legacy label, which included a bonus DVD with the first 250,000 copies of Bob Dylan's Live 1975 CD.
And the tactic is finding enough success that the industry is looking harder at adding material to current and new CDs.
In the case of The Strokes, after RCA shipped 75,000 copies of the Is This It limited edition (the DVD has three music videos and two live performances), the edition initially increased sales of the album fivefold.
"With all of the bootlegging and the piracy, we are looking at ways to repackage things (and) reward people," says David Gottlieb, head of marketing for RCA Records.
Among other recent rereleases:
- Three months after the release of Dixie Chicks' Home, fans can get a limited edition ($20.99 suggested Amazon retail) that has a bonus track � a remix of Landslide by Sheryl Crow � on the CD, plus a DVD with five videos, including Goodbye Earl.
- Pink's Missundaztood, having sold more than 3 million copies since its release in November 2001, got a makeover two weeks ago ($21.98) thanks to a DVD that has two music videos and two live performances.
- James Taylor's October Road is available in a limited edition ($21.98) with a bonus CD-ROM that contains three songs, including Sailing to Philadelphia and a duet with Mark Knopfler, plus an interview with Taylor and behind-the-scenes clips when played in a PC.
Among new releases recently getting the "limited" treatment are Korn's Untouchables, George Harrison's Brainwashed and The Roots' Phrenology, each of which has a bonus DVD. The initial copies of God's Son, the new album from rapper Nas (out Dec. 17), will have a bonus CD with three tracks.
The industry needs to shake things up. CD shipments to retailers have been dropping, a trend the Recording Industry Association of America attributes to file sharing and CD recording. CD shipments dropped 7% in the first six months of 2002; total shipments in 2001 were down 5.3% over 2000.
Despite possible confusion for consumers, these multiple configurations can inject vitality into the music industry, says Kurt Orzeck of music magazine ICE. "Pop music has this bad reputation for being homogeneous. This allows for more creativity. There's a lot of open space for artists to flex their muscles."
But the industry will need to do more than toss in videos on bonus DVDs, Orzeck says. "It's too easy to blame file downloading," he says. "Consumers are value-minded. They want to hear an album that has 10 killer tracks."
