Ask CDS: Finding B-Sides, Rarities and Hidden Tracks

Welcome to this week's "Ask CDS". Last week I answered questions about ARTPOP and the entire Billboard 1st week sales fiasco. This week I got some questions asking about the hidden track "Open Letter" by Jay-Z from his album Magna Carta... Holy Grail. 

The person asked where they could find the track which was supposed to be released alongside the album as a special bonus track. When I had purchased the album, I was also puzzled by the disappearance of the song, but quickly forgot about it because I was content with the other material on the album. Initially I thought it was a physical release only bonus track, because it wasn't released on iTunes. I dug deeper into the internet to find anything I could regarding the track. Nothing. Then suddenly I found a post stating that it would be on the unreleased vinyl version. I quickly wrote back to the person and told them that it would only be 'officially' released on the vinyl record. The person asked me why the vinyl hadn't yet been released.

I came to the conclusion that it was not known if the album was going to be popular or super popular. Because it is harder to make vinyl copies, the label would want to see its overall performance for a few months and eventually issue a good amount of vinyl copies that would likely sell out.

Rarities, B-Sides and Hidden tracks (to me) are very interesting mysteries to uncover. Some songs can be extremely challenging to find, but they are likely hidden on a limited edition cd single, or something else that is closely related. If you are having trouble finding a 'limited' track just tweet me and I'll be glad to help the best that I can.


Until next time, this is this week's Ask CDS coming to a close.