Are Artist's Ripping Off Their Fans?

Well these artist are not the first to do it and won't be the last but Rascal Flatts, and Taylor Swift are the most recent to re-release albums as a Deluxe, Limited, Special or Platinum Editions. What do those editions make that album which has already been released and bought up by their fans mean? It means "oh we thought we would add a few new tracks that couldn't fit on the first one, (but for some strange reason they fit on these). People actually fall for it and go out and buy them. I personally think it is ripping your fans off, especially "in these tough economic times".

Rascal Flatts will release their "Limited Edition" version of their Greatest Hits: Volume 1 CD, will hit stores on Oct. 6th. What is special about this "Volume" compared to their Greatest Hits: Volume 1 released less then a year ago on October 28, 2008? Well not much the main track list is exactly the same then the PR for it is as follows "The special holiday Limited Edition 2-cd package includes four new bonus tracks – live concert recordings of "Take Me There," "Winner At A Losing Game," "Me And My Gang" and "Summer Nights" - along with a bonus interview and foldout poster of the band from their Unstoppable tour. The limited edition release is packaged in a special silver foil-embossed keepsake box". So four live songs and a special packaged box makes it a good "holiday" gift worth buying, I think not (rip off)!

Taylor Swift is a multiple offender of this, she already used this form of marketing manipulation with her first album "Taylor Swift" when she released "Taylor Swift - Deluxe Limited Edition" on November 06, 2007, over a year after it's original. The "Deluxe Limited Edition" added three new songs and a DVD. I ask, why not save the new songs for her second album and just release a DVD? The answer is very simple by releasing these special editions, the sales are contributed to the original album, not as an album of it's own. So Swift was just started to get her crossover appeal, in comes the "Deluxe Limited Edition" and her sales more then doubled from the original but it makes the original be called a 3x Platinum selling album.

Now she's going to do it yet again, just one year after "Taylor Swift - Deluxe Limited Edition" she released "Fearless" to astounding sales, bringing it currently to 4x platinum. One would find that an amazing feat in the day of digital music and to be good enough, but not for Swift and (or) her label. Less then one year after it's release, on November 11, 2008, we will see "Fearless Platinum Edition" on October 27, 2009. The PR for this goes "Taylor’s fans have an incredible appetite for her new music and her ongoing life experiences," says Scott Borchetta, president and CEO of the Big Machine Label Group. "There are six new songs, over 50 new photographs from the Fearless Tour 2009, a beautiful new collector cover, all of the videos from all of the hit singles and tons of new Taylor video footage."

Six new songs that's half of an album so why not put them on to a new third album? My theory is her label knows the rivalry between Swift and Carrie Underwood fans and they are going to capitalize on it. The announcement of this edition came two weeks after the release date of Nov. 3rd for "Play On", Underwood's third album was announced, hmmm coincidence, mmmmm I think not! It sounds like they are a little threatened by the highly anticipated Underwood album, which has a lot more buzz then Swift's original "Fearless" and the young woman who paved the way for Swift.

We'll have to wait and see what happens with "Princess" battling it out on the charts with the "Queen of Country"!