My Interview with Obbie about Box-Set

They wrote it but gave the rights away for money.

Bruce did it with some of his songs, Light Of Day, so it is possible.

I just don't know the legalities behind it. Is it worth the trouble for them? My guess is No but you never know.

The last box set was for fans, but I think the reason it didn't do as well as the other albums was because it was far too pricey. £50 put me off. I had to save up.

I think they should issue a 1 disc album of songs every 3 months throughout the 30th anniversary. That way people could afford it rather than it being digital only release. There could be a single released on each CD, such as Nothing.

I agree, I want the physical thing. Digital makes little to no sense to me. I don't care if it costs me more or whatever. Of course, if the choice was between nothing at all and a digital release, then it's easily said, I would obviously go for the latter.

Agreed, I want the physical too. I just feel it's easy money for the label to put it up online and have little to no investment. It'd please the diehards, pleases the label, and the casuals are left completely out of the loop.

Bo Bice gets the first verse completely wrong here:


Makes me sad, why did they give it away

That's true as well. With a physical release, I feel like you can gain more casual buyers who probably wouldn't be bothered or get to even know about it at all if it was a digital release. Might not be earthshaking numbers, but with a boxset or a similar release, we're not talking big numbers in any case. A boxset is a collector piece, it doesn't make much sense to have it in mp3s. Makes me cringe, and I think it would be a big turn-off for both die-hards and casuals alike.

It's all about digital with new upcoming artists and I guess that's okay. It's easier for the artists to get out there this way too. But record labels and the likes shouldn't get cheap on the big names. We're talking about Bon ****in' Jovi here, money shouldn't be THIS much of an issue to influence whether a new release will see the light of the day or not. If it does, it's wrong and it means the music business is going into a totally wrong direction.

I do agree with what you're saying about the music industry but there's albums designed for the general public and there's albums specifically for the fan base. This ain't going to sell. The box set sold little because it had no hits, there was nothing about it for the casual fan. It'd have a much better chance of selling if it was just an online service. I don't think its the way to go for another set of 50 songs, no. But some tracks here and there, why not?

It probably all comes down to people being lazy. Anyone can push play on iTunes and think they fancy a couple songs and spend their 99 cents on them. Most diehards would buy it either way. I would. So I guess you have a point. It would probably sell more, but only if they spend some effort in marketing it. I almost missed their "Inside Out" release, and I'm as die-hard as you can get.

Which also takes me to another point. It needs to be a consistent release. "Inside Out" is a bunch of files thrown together. I don't know how much sentiment you can get from a digital release, but they need to make some more effort. The truth is even physical releases are so much more rushed than in the past. The "Greatest Hits" graphics pale in comparison to "Cross Road". "Cross Road" had its own photoshoot, a decent booklet. It's something you can remember, something that stands out. The "Greatest Hits" couples a vanilla title with some solid yet uninspired graphics. I LOVE gold on black, but the overall idea is the packaging is cheap. Both the CD and the DVD either have no booklet or a very poor one, I can't even remember.
The DVD release of the Live from Madison Square Garden is a joke from that perspective as well. It doesn't even look like an official release, more like a bootleg. Apart from one maybe two shots, I don't think there even was a photoshoot for "What About Now". But I know they worked a lot on the cover, so that makes up for it somehow.

I haven't picked up the booklet to "Bounce" since it first came out, I think, and to this day I still remember how precious it felt to hold it in my hands. It was made of so many different materials, the attention to details was amazing.
Back in the '80s till some years ago technology wasn't nearly as advanced as it is now, but a lot more effort was put into these works and it's quite obvious. It's a shame really.

No, it doesn't. It doesn't matter one bit. If Bon Jovi wanted to release a song they wrote, they could do it just as easily as any other song they've written.

Ice

Are you sure?

I think it depends. There was a similar reason as to why 'Name' was rerecorded on the Goo Goo Dolls Greatest Hits.

Just because Jon writes a song, it doesn't mean shit. Esp if it crosses record companies.