neutral said:
Yeah what do you think about the reason I posted? I haven't really heard of masses of people ordering import copies because they're cheaper.
I think it's just the company line, not from U2, but from Universal/Interscope.
When U2 was on Polygram/Island, seems liek to me we always got a bunch of B-sides and had several albums longer than the new regiment. I think Universal is trying to milk one of their big cash cows for all it is worth. I could be speaking out of league here, but it does make sense to me.
I basically think U2 can call their own shots,as far as album tracks and all that, but deciding about singles releases and B-sides and import business, maybe they don't call the shots.
Something like "ok, U2 you can take 5 years to record an album, you can put anything on the album you wish but when it comes to the singles releases and imports etc, that's our call. Total speculation but I couldnt see U2 sitting by and allowing all of these different singles releases, perceivably to maximize the monetary gain if they had an absolute authority over it.
There might be some agreement that says, give us 3 unreleased tracks from the album, and the best one goes to Japan, and the other 2 are for the singles. So they might hold on to Mercy, and toss off Are You Gonna Wait Forever which has already been exhausted.
I couldnt see U2 signing off on this method, it totally smells like a ploy by the label to me. The bevy of remixes I think are at the labels request to. Again, my speculaltion, they've got to fill 15 versions of the Vertigo single with something.
I think U2 wants the shorter album and if they wanted 14 tracks, they certainly could do it. But they've got to feed the wolves, so to speak and give the label a couple of tracks to chew on. It's either that, something like it or Paul McGuiness has gone senile.