Maybe the search tag for this should be "Bastards"...not that I care about the Smashing Pumpkins album anyways; it's just the principle of it!

People still listen to the Smashing Pumpkins?

Don't a lot of bands do that kinda thing?

And I always thought the record label had more control over that than the band did.

Full disclosure: I already pre-ordered on iTunes and plan to buy the special edition off of Amazon. Probably makes me an idiot, but whatev.

This sort of marketing scheme is the reason I quit collecting comic book a long time ago..

Smashing Pumpkins are soo 1990's anyway. (Bleh!)

@Ikki: Billy's mum was still listening until they made this announcement, but now she's decided to ignore them like everyone else. Even mum can only put up with so much crap.

This is a boon to get more advertising in stores. It's very strange, and frankly unprecidented that multiple stores are played against each other with different exclusive tracks.

Most of the core fans, quite frankly are looking forward to the extended sessions opened up to full recording starting tomorrow night, which will probably be the definitive content for the Pumpkins revival. Boots will probably hit torrents by Sunday night (Monday at the latest), and couldn't care less about any marketing tactics.

Four words: Peer to Peer Networking

I dislike exclusive tracks for X, Y, and Z retailers. It seems lame. I'm not even sure true fans will buy all the different versions. But that's fine. We have something called the internet. And it has this ability to transmit and receive all sorts of wonderful things, including music. And pictures of cats!

But I don't care. The Smashing Pumpkins isn't the same anymore, in terms of music and band members.

This is very common anymore guys...

I know on their latest CD Bloc Party had probably 6-8 tracks that werent included, except as Bsides on singles, or bonus tracks for certain retailers. Thats practically another CDs worth of songs.

They've worn out their irrelevance.

Which one will allofmp3.com get?

@LatherRinseRepeat: 'The Smashing Pumpkins isn't the same anymore, in terms of music and band members."

Seconded! This is akin to the "oooooh exclusive album cover only sold at Target!"

Thankfully, we live in a digital age.

how un-rock-and-roll can you get when you are producing crap for target? just because its common doesnt make it any less sell-out.

@Skiffer:

Just make sure you don't get caught! I use a private network for my source.

A friend of mine got one of those "letters" about how he had supposedly downloaded content and it was a big deal..

Until he sent them a screenshot of the registered product he had purchased a week prior at a thirft store. (He got lucky and dodged that bullet)

This just makes it impossible for fans to buy the music at a reasonable price. Buy three CDs now, paying for overlapping content and then in a year they'll release their greatest hits anthology with all the songs. Either way you're paying for content you already have. I don't steal music for moral reasons but this would push me over the edge. Nobody wants to get jerked around by their favorite bands. Fortunately their new new single is A-W-F-U-L.

This is some bullshit right here. Didn't the REAL Smashing Pumpkins release their last album (Friends and Enemies of Modern Music, I believe) only as vinyl/mp3 as a "fuck you" to the record companies? Talk about a 180.

And I agree. Two out of four original members does not a "reunion" make.

1. Convince your artist to alienate its dwindling fan base
2.
3. Profit!

This is a pretty standard practice in publishing and music... even DVDs and video games will do this (some stores get add-ins that others don't). Ask anyone who collects this sort of thing.

What surprises me is that this is news to anyone. Chains like Target and Best Buy commit to higher order numbers to get these exclusives for the promotional benefits. It's a standard industry practice.

it's actions like tis that cause people to run to torrents/p2p/newsgroups. Why buy 4 cd's when I can buy 1, grab the bonus tracks & upload them all to my mp3 player?

The cd probably sucks anyway.

On the topic of buying music, don't waste your money on a Rocky Horror soundtrack.

Back on topic, its this kind of thing that makes people pirate.
No one wants to buy the same song thrice.

Aye, just wait a little bit and you'll find them all available for download in a nice set of 13 RAR files on your local torrent site.

Its almost like the record companies WANT us to steal their music so they can sue us. Hmmm....

The band is a vampire du du du du doot dum doot

@brokennails: They've already stuck it to the record companies, this time around we're on the hook.

The next album is going to be in that really high freqency that only 16 year olds can hear.

you'd think consumerist would like this, since they are walmart haters and target sack riders

I am a smashing pumpkins fan, but that's not the important part. I saw this article on pitch fork yesterday and I had to laugh. For being a music publication they obviously have little idea of how the music industry works. To blame the band is B.S. The record company is the one who's getting a special deal by doing this, it's not in the interest of the pumpkins. Not to mention back in 2000 they publicly GAVE AWAY a two disc album online for free! Has anyone else done that? Any finally, can you really blame the record company (Warner Bros.) ? People steal music these days, they don't buy cds. Atleast they may recoup their expenses if they release all these different versions of the album.

Yes, bonus tracks are standard practice as many commenters have noted. But the title track? I think that's the news here. Can anybody cite another instance in which the freaking title track was an exclusive? Sure, that song may well be the crappiest track on the album, but regardless, this introduces a new level of brazenness into the equation.

I just bought the latest Queens Of The Stone Age CD at Best Buy and it came with a coupon/code so that I can go online and download a Best Buy "exclusive" track. The only thing exclusive is probably the fact that they're using it to data harvest me (ie cant download without inputing email/personal details). And speaking of that, what happened to the days when you could buy a soda and peel off the label or pop the top to see if you won. Now you have to provide info to even find out. BS. I'm tired of this kind of marketing.

The Pumpkins are still relevant, they were never more than Billy Corgan + Chamberlin + 2

This multi issue marketing is brillant,

I Will be buying all 3, if you don't want to.
well don't. ;)

And last thought, if you think it was the band's idea, no, this is straight out of the Virgin Martketing Department.

Buy the CD's, buy the tickets, and your Zero shirt. Or Don't your choice.

This point has already been made by thoughtful commenters, but it bears repeating that this is exactly the kinda crap that drives people to pirate. Why hasn't the industry appreciated this yet?

If there are 4 or so "bonus" tracks, wouldn't it make more sense moneywise to release them as an EP?

Y'know, I bet Frostwire will have all three bonus tracks.

Last year Ziggy Marley had an exclusive release via Target and he headlined the Hollywood Bowl (18,000 cap) and as the Manager of the onsite retailer (Tower Records) there we weren't able to sell his newest release of the record he was on tour supporting, but had all of his catalog. In the end most people didn't care to ty and purchase the record anyway but it is the principal of trying to have your current material available to people that just made an expensive effort to come see you live.

Just for kicks I went to do a little competition research the next couple of days and none of the local LA area stores even carried the "TARGET EXCLUSIVE" release or if it had magically sold out, hadn't bumped up the city wide stock levels to support an arena appearance. Good job Target and record labels! You have screwed yourself and other musician friendly retailers for years...I'm not forgetting you either Best Buy!!!!!!!

@nequam

You can count me in there - I have no problem purchasing the album off of iTunes, but you can bet I'll be searching the underweb for the remaining bonus songs. I can't see this as anything more than the labels attempt to boost record sales.

I don't care for their music, but I hope any fans will punish these corporate whores by making sure pirated copies of every one of their discs are made freely available all over the web.

Lest anyone think that too strong, this is a band that was made by independent stores and radio stations.

I do think this sucks, but let's face it... all the bonus tracks are already available at the usual places minutes after it hits the shelves.

This band was made by MTV and their Music Videos + Virgin Marketing partners.

can't you just buy the album on itunes and then download the additional tracks? or are those tracks not offered on itunes? i doubt there are many people that will buy all four versions

Ok, here's the plan, some of us buy it at Target, some of us at Best Buy and the rest of us on iTunes. Then we can meet up on Shareaza!

Come on RIAA, is it any wonder we resort to guerrilla techniques?

@Skiffer: Yeah, really! People still pay for music? Heh...

And they wonder why people download mp3's without paying. How can a title track be made a store exclusive?

I REALLY hope this isn't a new trend...

@homerjay: It seems that way because as EVERYONE else has said this seems designed to drive people who don't normally pirate to do just that.

I really think that this band is the most generous band of all time... Consider the 2x cd, and the free 2x cd, and the upcoming concerts. Consider that all of their albums have lasted over 50 minutes when other bands struggle to get up to 30.

Sure, this is marketing but oh well.

This just seems like forcing your average listener to pirate the CD instead of buying it.. If I'm going to have to buy several CDs with mostly duplicated content to get the entire selection, I'm much more likely to find out where I can simply get them all for free.

@Peekaso: James Iha deserves more credit than you think.

I really can't imagine the new line-up will sound like they deserve the name Smashing Pumpkins. Corgan hasn't done anything decen since Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, a great album. Oh, and this whole gauging consumers thing sucks, too. (You mean this isn't Blabbermouth?)

Is this the same Smashing Pumpkins that made a pile of cash with their limited availability "farewell" concerts in Chicago some years ago. I think so.

just don't buy the album, or any other product from the riaa (collectively). the only way they're gonna change, is if you STOP GIVING THEM YOUR MONEY...

"but that'll hurt the artists."

no, because they'll find a way to do it themselves and cut out the greedy pigs in the middle. i'd much rather go to [band name]'s website and get it directly.

One of my favorite bands, Project 86, just released their sixth album on the 19th of this month, which I was totally psyched for. I pre-ordered the album online so that it would come with a free Making Of DVD. However, the day after I received my album in the mail, the band announced on their website that if you buy the entire album at once on iTunes, it would come with a free bonus track... The reason I buy CDs is in case all of my digital copies somehow all are erased, I still have the hard copy somewhere. I'd have preferred the bonus track to have just been available for download on their website... it was like, "Hey, thanks for your support pre-ordering our album! Here's a free DVD! Oh, by the way, you missed out on the bonus track." You can't even download the bonus track by itself on iTunes; you have to get it with the entire album at once. And even if I had known this ahead of time, I still wouldn't have gotten the album off of iTunes, because if your music is lost, you have to repurchase it. Making bonus tracks exclusive to specific vendors is pretty lame. If it was exclusive to the internet as a whole, fine... but not everyone is an iTunes user.

But these are BONUS tracks. Just because one of the bonus tracks has the same title as the album doesn't mean it's important at all - and here, it's not an important track.

I think everyone bit on the nasty Pitchfork headline... motivated by the idea that they're cutting out the "indie" stores (you know the place where you can pay $6 more than the major retailers for the exact same disc).

People LOVE their "indie" record stores but those places were always the biggest rip-off, imo. Pitchfork thinks they deserve their old-economy profit margin? Waah.