Is this the way to treat your fans? Peter Andre’s new CD is available in Tesco, with a sticker on it saying “Includes Bonus Track and Poster only available at Tesco”, and yes, it has a bonus track called “Piano” contained on the CD. In Asda, the CD has a sticker saying “Includes bonus Track and Poster. New and exclusive to Asda”. It includes a bonus track called “Every Moment”. There is also a third version of the CD that doesn’t have a bonus track or a poster, (presumably available from Sainsburys, Morrisons, HMV, Amazon and Play etc).

This form of marketing seems very disrespectful to your fans/buyers. What do people think.

P.S. I’m thinking about the principal, but I suspect someone will say something like “It’s Peter Andre, who cares!”

They'll all be available for a quid each before the year is out....

dixie wrote:

This form of marketing seems very disrespectful to your fans/buyers. What do people think.

You are absolutely right. In the beginning (late 70s, as far as I know) different sleeves / vinyl colours etc. were a way to attract attention, directed more at the media than the fans.

The main culprit was Stiff Records, for example with the sleeve for the first Damned album with the photo of Eddie & The Hot Rods: This was not a "misprint", a mistake at the factory, but a pre-planned pr-stunt.

In the mid-90s it was almost mandatory to release singles in two or three versions. And very soon this way of marketing got completely out of hand. Today all these different versions are the result of marketing partnerships. From the labels point of view it is not about the fans, but about money or other favours from their marketing partners.

Casual buyers never cared anyway, and even the super fans stopped buying long ago: If there is no chance to own everything, it makes no sense (if it ever did) to buy multiple copies of a record. (Even I gave up collecting Stiff Records around BUY 200).

This is all part of chart hype; get instant sales, chart higher.
Which meant the chart as a marketing tool was devalued.
So Top of the Pops (rightly) got cancelled.

I started it I'm afraid.

JK2006 wrote:
This is all part of chart hype; get instant sales, chart higher.
Which meant the chart as a marketing tool was devalued.
So Top of the Pops (rightly) got cancelled.

I started it I'm afraid.

But, JK, you at least restricted the practice to the [relatively] cheaper single format. To do the same with albums??!! I can't imagine there are many Peter Andre fans rich/stupid enough to want every version of an album. If I was a fan of his music (I'm not), I'd buy the cheapest version, and rip the missing tracks.

You're right Dixie and it was the lack of intelligence amongst the majors that ruined my idea in the first place; because we were a tiny label with small budgets (though several times we had three in the top 5), I would only push the button for Hype when I knew the track was genuinely popular; the others simply hyped their top priorities, thus getting high chart placings for crap which destroyed the value of the chart. Today's sad scene is the direct result. Copying without understanding why - disastrous.