Dr. Dre The Chronic Re-Lit Release Date

[acgrundy]

I think sales are going to go horrible worse than wide awake expects.  With the way the economy is, seriously how many sales do they expect, of a re-release of a 15 year old cd?  Add to it, there is damn near zero promotion.  I mean, how many death row fans are going to buy this?  I know that a majority of hardcore DR fans are borderline psycho and willing to pay like $200 for a cd...but other than that handful, how many people are willing to shell out $15 for a cd that you already own?  Especially when you know that you can just download the new songs that leak.

I want this dr music to come out...but as far as a business move...other than getting the royalty checks, I don't see how they are going to really be making much money off of this deal.  And I hope that they don't have these super high expectations, only to become discouraged, and stop after 2 or 3 releases.

I think you underestimate it. What promotion does it really need? You think people don't buy re-releases of "Thriller" and all them old Beattles album twenty years later? It's not like they are looking for some first-week platinum kind of sales. They aren't going to be losing any money on this, trust me. There's always money in updating classic catalog titles. Re-releases especially with bonus content always sell. When you have albums like these (Chronic, Doggystyle, All Eyez), they are constantly mentioned in magazines, MTV, etc. When a new hip-hop list drops and they are on it, this is gonna spark renewed interest somewhere. There's a reason why these albums have been re-released about three times before and we had two different "15 Years Of Death Row" within a couple months of each other despite a previous "Best Of" being released only a year before that with nearly the same songs. There's a reason why Bad Boy put out a remastered "Ready To Die" with new songs and was still able to release a "Greatest Hits" with Biggie after that and a soundtrack with a lot of the same songs. This music will always be profitable. If I own the Death Row library and my call is between re-releasing the classic catalog and putting out new artist shit, from a business view, it's the biggest fucking no-brainer in the world. Same as people are still buying Motown songs, people will continue to buy Dr. Dre and Tupac CD's.

You are talking about a different time era and a different age group of people.  Most people who want this album, and some how don't have it, will download it.  When thriller and beatles albums were released in the past, downloading wasn't as accessible, and it was a different age group of people.  This will not sell a lot of copies, I guarantee it.

[V2DHeart]

I will buy a copy or 2 if they put on 2/3 bonus songs. I own both the original CD, and the remastered version, but because time, and carelessness have degraded both CD's, I would like to get another, but have always found greater use for my money no matter how little I can get it for off ebay. If however, there was something like bonus songs on offer to perswade me, then I'd buy it.....

I predict 109,000 for The Chronic relit because no promotion besides magazine ad's will be given to this release, but it'll be enough to secure a decent sales figure before re-releasing the Doggystyle album

[Jimmy H.]

You are talking about a different time era and a different age group of people.  Most people who want this album, and some how don't have it, will download it.  When thriller and beatles albums were released in the past, downloading wasn't as accessible, and it was a different age group of people.  This will not sell a lot of copies, I guarantee it.

How exactly can you guarantee it? Was Ready To Die a different era? Was Illmatic a different era? Both these albums got special collector's editions and sold well. I'm also a little confused by your comment about downloading not be as accessible when Thriller was re-released. You do realize it came out last year? It came in #2 in the United States and went platinum in several international markets. The thing is "Chronic" doesn't have to do anywhere near that to be succesful. There is a reason why between D3 and Koch, Death Row released esentially the same material about a half dozen times in the span of seven to eight years. The stuff generates revenue. If people weren't buying the Death Row albums, Koch would not have put out a Dual Disc release of their bigger titles (Chronic, Doggystyle, Doggfather, All Eyez, Makaveli) in 2005, especially when there were already digitally-remastered reissues on the shelves. If this stuff was losing them money and taking up shelf space, it wouln't keep getting put out. New music needs to do big first week numbers because the labels spend millions of dollars between studio time, production costs, and promotional costs used to familiarize buyers with the product. Catalog music is a lot easier to push and requires a lot less on the sales side to be profitable. You notice how Death Row and N.W.A. compilations continue to be re-packaged over and over every couple years? Bad Boy has done it with Biggie. Rap-A-Lot does it with their more popular artists. BMG does it with all those "greatest hits" compilations (even the DJ Quik one). The classic music is always going to sell.

[BIGWORM]

^ man those dual discs are the way of the future. I bought all those re-release albums. DVD audio is better quality then cd plus it looks sick when your playing it in your ride with a dvd screen when every track shows different artwork. Not to mention the classic video's.... Dual discs are the best...

[Big B]

sounds kinda geeky.

lol

you gotta admit, it sounds really geeky. it might be something that chad vader would buy.

Well, I admit I don't know how much the casual fan will be into it.  I find it curious that they would start off their releases with yet another re-release.  I'm sure the completists like myself will be happy though.     

what would you suggest they start off with?

 Well, that's a tough one.  Maybe they think by starting off with an album like "The Chronic," they're playing it safe since it's an already-established hit record from a famous
artist.  You can't hardly argue that, but at the same time, there are going to be a lot of people who already own "The Chronic," and therefore won't re-buy it no matter how nicely they dress it up. 
  Personally, I think I would have tried to put out a full unreleased album first.  N.I.N.A. might have been a good choice since Left Eye was an already established star, if the album hadn't leaked already.  Crooked I's "Untouchable" album could probably have been a successful first release.
  But, a lot of this would also depend on how well the label promotes the material.  So far, they have only posted a website with very little content.  I think whichever artist they choose to put out (first, or even for future releases), they need to have a website where they can post at least one single for each album, before it comes out.  Plus provide a forum where the fans can post, so they have a better idea of which albums the fans want most.  Laura Lavi and John Payne should probably also continue to do interviews, also to help keep people informed of when the albums will be available.

if they offered you a job would you take it?

Maybe.  Depends on what job they offered me. 

say they let you pick the bonus tracks from the vaults.

[JohnnyL]

sounds kinda geeky.

lol

you gotta admit, it sounds really geeky. it might be something that chad vader would buy.

Well, I admit I don't know how much the casual fan will be into it.  I find it curious that they would start off their releases with yet another re-release.  I'm sure the completists like myself will be happy though.     

what would you suggest they start off with?

 Well, that's a tough one.  Maybe they think by starting off with an album like "The Chronic," they're playing it safe since it's an already-established hit record from a famous
artist.  You can't hardly argue that, but at the same time, there are going to be a lot of people who already own "The Chronic," and therefore won't re-buy it no matter how nicely they dress it up. 
  Personally, I think I would have tried to put out a full unreleased album first.  N.I.N.A. might have been a good choice since Left Eye was an already established star, if the album hadn't leaked already.  Crooked I's "Untouchable" album could probably have been a successful first release.
  But, a lot of this would also depend on how well the label promotes the material.  So far, they have only posted a website with very little content.  I think whichever artist they choose to put out (first, or even for future releases), they need to have a website where they can post at least one single for each album, before it comes out.  Plus provide a forum where the fans can post, so they have a better idea of which albums the fans want most.  Laura Lavi and John Payne should probably also continue to do interviews, also to help keep people informed of when the albums will be available.

if they offered you a job would you take it?

Maybe.  Depends on what job they offered me. 

say they let you pick the bonus tracks from the vaults.

lol...Yeah.  If that was an actual job and I could make a living doing it, I'm sure I'd do it.

[Big B]

sounds kinda geeky.

lol

you gotta admit, it sounds really geeky. it might be something that chad vader would buy.

Well, I admit I don't know how much the casual fan will be into it.  I find it curious that they would start off their releases with yet another re-release.  I'm sure the completists like myself will be happy though.     

what would you suggest they start off with?

 Well, that's a tough one.  Maybe they think by starting off with an album like "The Chronic," they're playing it safe since it's an already-established hit record from a famous
artist.  You can't hardly argue that, but at the same time, there are going to be a lot of people who already own "The Chronic," and therefore won't re-buy it no matter how nicely they dress it up. 
  Personally, I think I would have tried to put out a full unreleased album first.  N.I.N.A. might have been a good choice since Left Eye was an already established star, if the album hadn't leaked already.  Crooked I's "Untouchable" album could probably have been a successful first release.
  But, a lot of this would also depend on how well the label promotes the material.  So far, they have only posted a website with very little content.  I think whichever artist they choose to put out (first, or even for future releases), they need to have a website where they can post at least one single for each album, before it comes out.  Plus provide a forum where the fans can post, so they have a better idea of which albums the fans want most.  Laura Lavi and John Payne should probably also continue to do interviews, also to help keep people informed of when the albums will be available.

if they offered you a job would you take it?

Maybe.  Depends on what job they offered me. 

say they let you pick the bonus tracks from the vaults.

lol...Yeah.  If that was an actual job and I could make a living doing it, I'm sure I'd do it.

what if it was a full time job that paid $5.50/hour?

[JohnnyL]

sounds kinda geeky.

lol

you gotta admit, it sounds really geeky. it might be something that chad vader would buy.

Well, I admit I don't know how much the casual fan will be into it.  I find it curious that they would start off their releases with yet another re-release.  I'm sure the completists like myself will be happy though.     

what would you suggest they start off with?

 Well, that's a tough one.  Maybe they think by starting off with an album like "The Chronic," they're playing it safe since it's an already-established hit record from a famous
artist.  You can't hardly argue that, but at the same time, there are going to be a lot of people who already own "The Chronic," and therefore won't re-buy it no matter how nicely they dress it up. 
  Personally, I think I would have tried to put out a full unreleased album first.  N.I.N.A. might have been a good choice since Left Eye was an already established star, if the album hadn't leaked already.  Crooked I's "Untouchable" album could probably have been a successful first release.
  But, a lot of this would also depend on how well the label promotes the material.  So far, they have only posted a website with very little content.  I think whichever artist they choose to put out (first, or even for future releases), they need to have a website where they can post at least one single for each album, before it comes out.  Plus provide a forum where the fans can post, so they have a better idea of which albums the fans want most.  Laura Lavi and John Payne should probably also continue to do interviews, also to help keep people informed of when the albums will be available.

if they offered you a job would you take it?

Maybe.  Depends on what job they offered me. 

say they let you pick the bonus tracks from the vaults.

lol...Yeah.  If that was an actual job and I could make a living doing it, I'm sure I'd do it.

what if it was a full time job that paid $5.50/hour?

Do I get health insurance?  And if so, what about dental and vision?

[Big B]

sounds kinda geeky.

lol

you gotta admit, it sounds really geeky. it might be something that chad vader would buy.

Well, I admit I don't know how much the casual fan will be into it.  I find it curious that they would start off their releases with yet another re-release.  I'm sure the completists like myself will be happy though.     

what would you suggest they start off with?

 Well, that's a tough one.  Maybe they think by starting off with an album like "The Chronic," they're playing it safe since it's an already-established hit record from a famous
artist.  You can't hardly argue that, but at the same time, there are going to be a lot of people who already own "The Chronic," and therefore won't re-buy it no matter how nicely they dress it up. 
  Personally, I think I would have tried to put out a full unreleased album first.  N.I.N.A. might have been a good choice since Left Eye was an already established star, if the album hadn't leaked already.  Crooked I's "Untouchable" album could probably have been a successful first release.
  But, a lot of this would also depend on how well the label promotes the material.  So far, they have only posted a website with very little content.  I think whichever artist they choose to put out (first, or even for future releases), they need to have a website where they can post at least one single for each album, before it comes out.  Plus provide a forum where the fans can post, so they have a better idea of which albums the fans want most.  Laura Lavi and John Payne should probably also continue to do interviews, also to help keep people informed of when the albums will be available.

if they offered you a job would you take it?

Maybe.  Depends on what job they offered me. 

say they let you pick the bonus tracks from the vaults.

lol...Yeah.  If that was an actual job and I could make a living doing it, I'm sure I'd do it.

what if it was a full time job that paid $5.50/hour?

Do I get health insurance?  And if so, what about dental and vision?

health? yes.

dental & vision? no.

[Blasphemy]

IMO iTunes/paid download is the only way they can go if they're out to make a profit of it. 2pac, Snoop & Dre are the only Death Row-names that could guarantee decent sales, every single other artist ever signed to the label is basically without mainstream value today, so paid downloads would defo minimize the costs of releasing the material, and maybe they could supplement with compilations...

putting out a CD > paid downloads

Yeah, but again they probably release it on 3 things CDS/Digital Download/Promotional Vinyl.

[Okka]

I still have the original version of "The Chronic", but if they include unreleased songs and other shit on this, i might be gettin this.

[Tanjential]

sooo...this is gonna be a re release of the chronic with original tracks? the remnants of death row are doing this?


any one care to let me know where this announcement came from?


-T

[JohnnyL]

sooo...this is gonna be a re release of the chronic with original tracks? the remnants of death row are doing this?


any one care to let me know where this announcement came from?


-T

 This is a remastered version of the Chronic released as a cd/dvd combo. The set comes with the regular album plus unreleased artwork, at least two unreleased tracks, and music videos that were made to promote "The Chronic."  It's being released by Wideawake Entertainment (the new owners of Death Row Records) and E1 (formerly Koch).
I believe the announcement was made a couple months ago. 
 This set is to be the first of many releases to come from the new Death Row (Wideawake Entertainment).  Several weeks ago, Wideawake also released a free 3 track sampler for Record Store Day which featured three unreleased tracks from Danny Boy, Crooked I, and Petey Pablo.

[Tanjential]

what is record store day?

is it like free comic book day?

hm, i got a remastered the chronic in like 03 or some shit...it had videos and shit on it...how is this different?

-T

[Big B]

what is record store day?

is it like free comic book day?

hm, i got a remastered the chronic in like 03 or some shit...it had videos and shit on it...how is this different?

-T

lol.