Case in point. The record labels are trying to stimulate sales by adding ‘extra goodies’ like bonus videos, that people can’t get by downloading the music. All well and good, but somehow the labels are going about it all wrong. Take the Dixie Chicks’ Home for example. The CD was originally released in August of last year. Then that following November, Sony released an expanded edition that includes an extra disc of videos. What about all the people who bought the disc prior to November and lost out on the chance to get the videos? Unless they went out and bought another copy of the same music if they wanted the video portion, all these fans lost out. The same thing was done with Johnny Cash’s American IV The Man Comes Around. His label recently re-issued the disc that now includes the video for "Hurt." Granted, the video wasn’t out when the disc was originally released, however, the video is nothing short of brilliant, and turned out to be the force that has driven the disc up the chart, earning Johnny his first gold album in 32 years, and is what sparked an unexpected modern rock hit. There are plenty of people that would love to own the video in their collection, but unless they go out and repurchase the disc, they can’t. These are only two examples, not the only ones, and it’s a disturbing trend that’s spanning every genre of music, one that’s only leaving music fans feeling angry and cheated.

The next example, I recently received a newsletter with updates of up coming releases, when what should I come across? On May 20^th, RCA is ‘re-issuing’ a re-issue of Waylon Live. The new title is Waylon Live: Expanded Edition. Now they just re-issued this album on disc in 1999, as a remastered version, restoring the 9 cuts from the same show that were deleted from the original version that appeared on vinyl in 1976. The album was originally supposed to have been a double album, but for some inexplicable reason wasn’t, so half the original album was never released. Excellent news for Waylon fans, we now had the whole album as it was originally planned, with all 20 of it’s glorious cuts.

This new ‘expanded re-issue’ is adding an additional disc to Waylon Live, with another 20 tracks of live Waylon. However, these tracks aren’t from the same show, but from the same ‘era.’ As a diehard Waylon fan, what could be better than previously unreleased live Waylon tracks? I sure can’t think of anything better! What could get a diehard Waylon fan more pissed off though? Having these tracks added to a release that most Waylon fans already own in either or both the original vinyl form, and the re-issue that was just released a few years ago which was purchased to get the fully restored version. To further mess things up, RCA isn’t issuing the 20 previously unreleased tracks on the second disc, they’ve mixed them in among the tracks from the original disc.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I’ve got a big problem with the methods here. The label (in this particular instance, RCA) is forcing me to re-purchase a perfectly perfect disc I already own if I want the previously unreleased tracks. Of course I want those tracks! Even more than a year after his passing, it’s still hard to believe, but there will no longer be any more new music from Waylon (with the exception of anything he may have recorded and that hadn’t been released before his passing). And in my mind, there’s nothing better than Waylon live. Considering they’re releasing an additional 20 tracks, that’s more than enough for an entirely separate release. They could’ve called it More Waylon Live. Instead of selling the two-disc Expanded Edition which is listing for $19.99, they could have released a completely separate disc which they could have sold for $12.99 or $13.99, probably making more money and most likely selling more units, since I’m sure there’s a lot of people that are going to think long and hard about whether they’re going to willingly let a record label rip them off yet again.

This is the very kind of thing that literally provokes people into downloading music. How many times do they honestly expect people to pay for the same music they’ve already bought and own, some several times over already, while they play their marketing games of tossing in a few previously unreleased tracks on yet another ‘remastered, re-issue,’ and in this case, an entire CD worth? My guess is there’s going to be a lot of people that cry ‘foul’ and pass, and instead turn to the ‘net and download the 20 tracks they don’t have, so they don’t have to spend extra to repurchase the 20 tracks they already DO have.

Not to mention, the whole thing smells like not only exploiting the consumer, but exploiting Waylon himself. RCA only ever put out one Waylon box set, Only Daddy That’ll Walk The Line, a two disc set with 40 tracks in the early 90's that’s long out of print, that they later whittled down to the 20 track, The Essential Waylon Jennings. In the mid-90's BMG resurrected the Buddha (previously spelled Buddah) label, and between 1999 and 2001, re-issued several of Waylon’s albums, including Honky Tonk Heroes, Dreaming My Dreams, Ramblin’ Man, This Time and Waylon Live, adding bonus cuts to all the former, and restoring Waylon Live to it’s originally intended length. In 2001, RCA Legends Waylon Jennings was released, which was a two disc variation on the Only Daddy box set, picking up the songs that were left off The Essential, and adding a few others not on the original box, but still it included plenty of duplications. Then there’s Greatest Hits I, Greatest Hits II, Super Hits, Super Hits II, Collectors Series, and the countless number of low budget packages of his early pre-70's work.

Hello! We already own all this stuff...why do we have to keep repurchasing the same songs over and over to get a few songs that we don’t own? Of course that’s a silly question, we all know why. Greed. Personally, I don’t buy a re-issue that’s been ‘re-re-issued’ just because it includes two or three previously unreleased songs. It’s just not worth the cost of repurchasing the CD to me. Again, by doing this, they’re not enticing people to go out and buy the new re-issue of something they already own. They’re just stimulating more of that ‘dreaded downloading,’ because people are simply downloading the couple of songs they’re missing, instead of plunking down another $12, $13 or more- a steep price to pay for two or three songs. Since most of these re-issues contain a few previously unreleased or alternative tracks, there’s more than enough of them, so wouldn’t it make more sense to put them all together in one separate package? They’d most likely sell more units that way- true fans, diehards and completests wouldn’t hesitate in buying something like that. And most importantly, they wouldn’t feel like it was merely another attempt to rip them off. Good customer relations makes for good business.

Oddly, it’s all the material that Waylon recorded after leaving RCA that hasn’t been endlessly recycled and ‘remastered/re-issued.’ Like his mid to late 80's recordings on MCA. Granted, none of these albums produced big hits, however, they are none the less an overall worthy group of recordings that contain more than a few real gems. MCA put out a 20^th Century Millennium collection that contains a couple of songs from each album. Hangin’ Tough can still be found fairly easily, and there’s still a few copies of Full Circle floating around, though they’re getting harder and harder to find. But just try getting your hands on a copy of Will The Wolf Survive? or his ‘audio-biography’ release, A Man Called Hoss. Those two are rarities, and when you can find them, vinyl copies are going for $30+, and the CD version runs anywhere between $30 and $75, depending on condition. MCA might do well, and do all of us Waylon fans a favor at the same time, in remastering and re-releasing those albums that were solid releases, but were greatly overlooked at the time of their original release. I’ve got very well worn vinyl copies of the latter two since I didn’t own a CD player when they were initially released, but boy, would I love to have clean versions of both on CD.