Comments on: Tower Records Japan Comes Up With Ingenious Way To Boost Record Sales

By: Tenno

Tenno — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 06:20:50 +0000

@mackro: I'm like the king of deluxe versions too, hence I'm poor, just so I can get my awesome japanese only exclusive song and remix.

By: mackro

mackro — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 05:28:24 +0000

The more interesting thing that's happening all over stores in Japan, mainly by Sony artists, is that "The CD" has been relegated to "plebeian status". The standard release of any pop artist there now is the CD+DVD. Then the deluxe version is the CD+2DVDs.

That's the tip of the iceberg. In 2005, one artist, Kumi Koda, released a CD-single once a month, each numbered on the front cover, where once you bought all of them, you could line up the OBI strips to put together a large picture of her. Also each song was a part of a larger story. And the "zero-th" single was released but could only be bought via cell phone.

Not to say this is all original but if you thought all the repackaging and deluxe editions being released stateside were bad...

By: KinetiQ

KinetiQ — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 04:57:09 +0000

This is something manga publishers in Japan have been doing for a while; apparently it's quite effective in that market.

Or at least that's what they claim in Lucky Star (truly the "Seinfeld" of anime).

By: Tenno

Tenno — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 04:11:46 +0000

Nothing I hate more than the practice of using the same cd over and slapping a sticker on it that makes you think it's something special.

Likewise, the age old practice of reselling american cds in france, then reimporting them back here so they can sell for twice as much sucks hard donkey nads.