Saturday Deluxe / 28 July 2018

Fans slam decision not to issue Yazoo box on CD

If you believe the ‘death of the CD’ hype – largely perpetuated by the media and some parts of the record industry itself – then it might be worth taking a look at the comments from real fans on SDE, under the recent post about the forthcoming Yazoo Four Pieces box set, which paint a very different picture…

This forthcoming box set contains ‘exclusively remastered’ versions of both Yazoo albums – along with an LP of remixes and a disc of largely unreleased BBC sessions – but the only physical edition available is on vinyl. According to Alison Moyet’s official news twitter account, there are “no plans for there to be a CD release.”

Let’s remind ourselves that while CD sales are undoubtedly in decline, more than 40m CDs were sold in the UK last year, compared to just 4.1m vinyl records. So despite outselling vinyl by a factor of 10 to 1, BMG have chosen not to release this box set on the most popular physical format. This is the same record label that released a 13CD Erasure box set last year.

We can obviously read between the lines. There is more profit in a £75 vinyl box set than a £20 four-CD set, but that’s not to say there’s no profit in a CD box set, as the Cherry Reds and Edsels of this world would attest. And anyway, even if you only make a tenth of the profit of a CD box, if you apply the 10:1 ration then all is good in the world.

It sticks in the craw somewhat, to see Tote bags and T-shirts being sold with the vinyl box to create £100 bundles, when the label haven’t done the basics and issued the actual music on CD! Music is, after all, what it’s all about.

Then there is also the ‘trendy’ factor. Vinyl is hip, CDs are boring (supposedly). Maybe Vince Clarke and Alison Moyet have decreed this set should only be issued on vinyl, because they don’t want the latest Yazoo box set in kicking around the glovebox of a used Ford Mondeo. Who knows?! I have reached out to label for a comment and will update this post if they come back with an explanation (I should add that I have no particular axe to grid. I buy both vinyl and CD box sets regularly).

In the meantime, here’s a small selection of what you had to say…

Neil: “If people want vinyl but give people the choice, as quite rightly they will be complaining why this isn’t being released on CD”

Marcel Rijs: “Record companies shouldn’t be so quick to set aside large lumps of possible customers. As it is, I won’t buy this. Their loss.”

Dr Volume: “As the comments here prove, if this is just a sample of Yazoo fans they’ve seriously misjudged demand on this one.”

AKICKUPTHE80S: “Would have been more tempted by a CD release.”

MusicFan: “I am surprised the CD format is being swept aside for a bloated vinyl boxed format where two-thirds of the content is already released.”

John Bommarito: “I’ll throw my vote in for a CD version of the remixes and BBC sessions. Not that it’ll make any difference as we don’t matter.”

Read more about Yazoo’s Four Pieces box set.

Lord of The Rings: The Return of The King – great 4CD+blu-ray price

As announced this week, it’s great news that fans don’t have to wait long for the final part of the Lord of The Rings soundtrack reissues, since the ‘complete recordings’ of Howard Shore‘s The Return of The King will be issued on vinyl and CD/Blu-ray in September.

Despite the fact that the CD/Blu-ray box of The Return of The King has one more disc (it’s 4CD+blu-ray) it’s now actually cheaper in the UK than the previous set, because you can pick it up for £61. Very much worth locking into that price.

I’m ‘in’ for both the vinyl and ‘optical’ versions of this edition, having bought both of the the previous volumes, although I will acknowledge that it’s been an expensive exercise and will demand some marathon listening sessions. Should be good though… and the 5.1 surround mixes are amazing.

Read more about The Lord of The Rings: The Return of the King soundtrack