When your average music fan wants to listen to something nowadays, the most likely thing they’ll do is fire up Spotify and click on a playlist. If they do listen to an album, it’ll most often be a studio release – usually the artist’s latest, or maybe their best-known. The listener might even just click around and listen to a few select songs or play the artist’s most-streamed tracks.
There’s nothing wrong with listening to music this way. It doesn’t mean you understand the music less, or make you a philistine, or anything like that. Most people just don’t have the time, money, or energy to dig deeper. Besides, maybe these average music fans are more into other forms of entertainment, like movies, books, TV shows, or video games.
Then you have people like me, who are a little more intense about listening to music. If you couldn’t tell by my countdown ranking the types of album releases, I routinely go beyond the studio albums and dig into EPs and various compilations. I don’t get all the way down that list into trying to find each single, remix, and live performance. I do have my limits. Generally speaking, though, if I like an artist, I want to listen to as much of their music as possible.
Which is why I wonder, “why do some artists and labels make this so difficult?”
Over the years, I’ve become something of a completionist when it comes to music, which I realize is a peculiar concept if you primarily stream. If you do like owning either physical or digital copies of albums (like I do), then it’s probably more relatable. After all, if you had the first, third, and fourth albums by an artist you enjoyed, wouldn’t you want that sophomore release? There are of course matters of taste to consider, and collectors can look at what they own versus a complete discography and think “you know what? I’m good.” After all, I don’t have any desire to own Cut the Crap by the Clash or Squeeze (nominally) by the Velvet Underground.
Critically panned releases aside, my completionist streak is fueled by a musical FOMO. The first EP I ever listened to was Radiohead’s Airbag/How Am I Driving?, and I remember thinking “This is amazing! If songs these good aren’t on any of their full (studio) albums, what else could I be missing?” So began my deep dives into the discographies of my favorite bands and musicians, along with my discovery of B-sides, EP-only songs, and other non-studio album tracks.
It turns out that trying to hunt down these rarer tracks is quite the endeavor. If you’re content with just giving them a listen, they’re often on Spotify and almost always on YouTube. Wanting to own them requires a lot more time and money. Staying on top of new releases is usually the easiest way to ensure you don’t miss out, since artists obviously want to reward their fans and social media followers with a steady trickle of music between the fanfare of their full-length releases. However, say you discover a band whose heyday was over a decade ago, or has since broken up. Or say your favorite singer-songwriter started with a fledgling label who only printed a few thousand physical copies of an EP. In these instances, you’re often S.O.L. You’ll look through their discography on Wikipedia, realize you don’t have that one early album, search for it online in the hopes of buying it, and then…find out this is near impossible.
In my quest to complete discographies, here are a few examples of times I’ve been thwarted by this exact scenario. Yes, I know these give away that I’m an older millennial whose tastes lean very heavily into indie rock.
Beck – Golden Feelings: This is the first studio album by the now-popular alternative musician, released a year before his big break Mellow Gold. Label Sonic Enemy released it as a CD without Beck’s permission, and only made 2,000 copies before Beck told them to stop. Don’t have a ton to spend on one of these rare copies? Tough shit.
Cold War Kids – Mulberry Street EP: This was Cold War Kids’ first album, released in 2005. They released it for free in 2007, on a website that’s long defunct. Didn’t get it then? Tough shit.
Foals – UK B-Sides: The name is pretty self-evident, but this was a collection of three UK B-sides bundled with U.S. pre-orders of their debut album Antidotes bought directly from the label, Sub Pop. Didn’t preorder back in 2008? Tough shit.
Fontaines D.C. – Darklands Versions: This EP combines four demo versions of tracks on the band’s debut Dogrel with two new tracks. Only available on CD bundled with purchases of Dogrel directly from the label, Rough Trade. You can get it separately on vinyl though. Don’t want to buy Dogrel again or don’t do vinyl? Tough shit.
Pnau – Sambanova: In case you don’t know Pnau, they’re an electronic group that shares member Nick Littlemore with the more well-known Empire of the Sun. Pnau’s debut album Sambanova was released first in 1999 before being recalled due to uncleared samples. It was later released on a different label with a slightly different track listing. It’s pretty hard to find any version of this album, and even the band admitted having to buy a used copy off eBay. Don’t want to follow their lead? Tough shit.
White Lies – Small T.V.: This EP was released as part of the tour for their 2013 album Big T.V., hence the name. Allegedly there were only 1,000 copies. Didn’t get the CD on this tour? Tough shit.
I’m sure there are many more examples out there. Fortunately, most artists make all of their music readily available in form or another, be it through an official webstore, iTunes, or Amazon. I personally appreciate it when an artist makes their complete discography ready for purchase on Bandcamp. After all, if you went through all of the hassle of composing and recording an album, why wouldn’t you want people to be able to buy it or at least listen to it?
For these instances when artists do make their music readily available, the hardest part of being a completionist is the cost. Sure, a new EP might be worth it, but is a re-release of a studio album with some bonus tracks? I’ve rarely found singles with just one or two B-sides to be a worthy investment, but what about really short EPs? Then there’s albums with multiple vendor-exclusive tracks, which are great until you realize you can’t own the complete track list without buying the album multiple times. Do labels really expect anyone to do that? Bloc Party’s second album A Weekend in the City had so many bonus tracks depending on where you bought it (Target, Best Buy, iTunes) that fans created a bootleg compilation called Another Weekend in the City.
Enter the B-side compilation, which I referred to as “the unsung heroes of the album world” on my aforementioned ranking list. I stand by that praise, with the caveat that “B-side” in this sense is a catch-all for non-studio album tracks, and not strictly the extra tracks on singles. These compilations save both the time and money by conveniently placing tracks from at least a handful of different releases in the same place. Was anyone really going to get the dozen or so singles that make up the Smiths’ Louder Than Bombs? Listening to these compilations, you’re guaranteed to hear something you wouldn’t have otherwise, and sometimes these can end up being better than most studio album tracks. Of course, the opposite is also true, and some tracks were chosen to be B-sides or bonus tracks for a reason, so your mileage may vary. At least you’ll know with these compilations, and won’t be left wondering “what if that one Japanese bonus track is secretly their best song?”
Anyway, my point here is that while I enjoy the hunt of completing discographies, it’s sometimes frustratingly difficult. If you’re an artist, wouldn’t you want more people to hear your music? If you’re a label, wouldn’t you want to make more money through album sales? I understand how rarity can sometimes reward the most devoted of mega-fans, but it does come at the expense of more casual listeners. At some point, it just makes sense to break down these barriers and facilitate access. And what better way to do this by releasing more compilations?
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