Funny, isn't it? -- The way that sometimes after a series of great leaps forward are taken in a given scenario, things can turn back around and fall apart again so quickly. The examples are endless: it could happen in simple household repairs or sporting events. Now, it seems, it's happening at the home video and music departments at your local malls.

Recently reading through Film Score Monthly magazine I happened upon a passage that caught my attention, and not in a good way. In discussing the CD release of the John Williams soundtrack for Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, mention was made that there was more than one version of the Episode II score available to music lovers everywhere... depending on WHERE you buy it. The TARGET version has an extra track called "On the Conveyor Belt," the WAL-MART version had a CD-ROM Screen Saver, and the BEST BUY version came with a Trading Card. The Item Numbers on the CD's from Sony were...

SK 89932 The Regular Version with No Extra Material
SK 88965 The TARGET Version (w/extra track)
SK 88989 The WAL-MART Version (w/screen saver)
SK 88990 The BEST BUY Version (w/trading card)

Also, each different one was printed in one of four collectible covers. That makes SIXTEEN versions available of the EPISODE II soundtrack for those keeping score. I picked up mine elsewhere. Guess what special features mine had. Here's a hint: none.

Now, how and why did this happen? Is Sony Classical, the issuer of the Episode II soundtrack, in league with retailers now? Are they tailor-making CDs for store chains now? More importantly, why does nobody know? My friends here at thefilmbasement.com and I are pretty well informed and inside-the-loop when it comes to entertainment news, and until I accidentally happened upon the magazine article, none of us heard a peep about this. So it's pretty safe to say that neither have many others -- especially not your "casual consumer."

And who's getting the short-end of this particular stick? Not the recording companies and not the retailers. They're making money anyway. And I'm sure they feel that the practice gets them extra business somehow (Retailer: "Yeah, the disc WE offer is better than THEIRS, so buy it HERE from US..."). It's the consumer who doesn't know it's happening. Given the info and given a choice, I might -- and would -- have bought my Episode II CD elsewhere, somewhere with an edition that had some of those special features. But I didn't know, and I'm not going to buy another. I consider myself a great John Williams fan, but what of the Williams fans who go out and buy multiple copies? Those fans could be spending approximately $50.00 or more to buy material that could just have easily fit on one mass-marketed CD. Is this greed from Sony Classical? It's not enough that within six to twelve months Sony will most likely put out a two-CD Episode II "Complete Edition," just like they did a year after issuing the score for Episode I. (A precedent?) Now, they're bilking us from the get-go. Retailers or labels? Oh, and it gets better. Now it's happening with DVD's.

Every Sunday, like millions of others, I buy the Sunday Paper. Locally, The Boston Globe has great arts and movie sections, fun comics, and the local retail sale inserts that I always peruse for DVD sale prices (big fan of price-matching, as I am). Well if you look at them too, perhaps you noticed the section of the recent Circuit City ad that listed that if you bought the MGM DVD of the Bruce Willis movie Hart's War there, your copy would come with "extra bonus DVD features" with more extras. And in last week's Best Buy circular, it read that if you bought the new version of Dreamworks's The Time Machine with Guy Pearce at Best Buy you get a "bonus DVD" with the screenplay and writer commentary.

At least those particular examples are in the actual advertising. Reading the ads told me where the best place to pick up The Time Machine was, and being a screenplay enthusiast I took advantage of it. I even took a moment to ask a Best Buy video department employee about this, not knowing which DVD's had the extra "bonus DVD." He showed me which ones had the disc, marked not with an easily visible sign on a standee or anything, but with a small sticker on the "special" DVD's that came with the bonus. Additionally, not every DVD actually came with the bonus one -- I'd say I saw possibly 15 or so on display out of maybe 50 or 60 of them. But what of those who don't read the Sunday Paper, who casually stroll in to look and decide they might want a DVD not knowing about the bonus offer? They might not have heard anything. And who's losing out? The consumers. They are. We are.

It isn't enough that studios put out more-and-more-packed special editions of some movies every so often (like TriStar's recent Men In Black re-re-re-issue), now you apparently have to buy multiple copies or shop at specific stores to get the good stuff. My question is: why? Why can't music and home video companies do it right the first time, create truly special editions of CD's and DVD's at the start, without constantly ripping off the consumer? Why must I travel thirty miles to the Circuit City when I should be able to pick up the same item at the local Best Buy? Why is none of this advertised more heavily? And most importantly, why does nobody seem to know about any of this...?

Well... now you do. Tell others. And "buyer beware," indeed.

--MG 7/28/2002