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Shania Twain has
shipped about 850,000 copies of her new album, Up!, in Canada since
its Nov. 12 release. That’s 1.7 million discs, because Up! is a
double album, sort of — every copy contains two versions of the same 19-song
album.
A red disc offers
the pop version — synths, electric guitars, with the drums and bass more
prominently mixed.
Then there’s the
green disc — the country version — the same 19 songs in the same order, but
with banjos, mandolins, fiddles and pedal steel guitars replacing the synths
and distorted electric guitars of the pop version.
The red-and-green
double-take is available in North America. In Europe
and other territories, the second disc is blue, and Ms. Twain describes it
as “more rhythmic with an Eastern influence. Way fun!” The blue disc is
being released outside North
America, but it’s available as an import here. Some of its tracks are
accessible through www.shaniatwain.com as streaming audio, or as
limited-term perishable Windows Media Player files that self-destruct after
90 days. The Web site offers two blue mix versions, changed frequently.
Up!
aims to capitalize on Ms. Twain’s crossover appeal, meet fan demand for
alternative versions and discourage unauthorized downloading by making it
easier, cheaper and faster to buy the record than try to find its tracks
online.
In all cases, the
second disc is a surprise. There’s little on the outside of the package to
tell consumers they’re getting two versions of the record, or which two. An
initial shipment of Up! was recalled because it left a U.S. pressing
plant in plastic cases embossed with “2CD.” Price is no indicator, either;
Up! is priced as a single disc.
A liner note by Ms.
Twain explains why buyers get two different takes on the same material:
“While writing and recording Up!, I felt a freedom to explore all my
different musical roots. Since I’ve always been comfortable writing and
singing many styles of music from the earliest age, I wanted this CD to
reflect that versatility. I didn’t feel I could express and have all that
fun in less than 19 songs and with only one CD.”
The note also
describes her discovery of the breadth and depth of her appeal in seeing the
diverse audiences her concerts drew when she toured to support her last
record, 1997’s Come On Over, which sold 36 million copies and yielded
a dozen singles.
But why not trumpet
the double CD as part of the marketing effort? “On this product, there’s
been so much anticipation and media coverage — almost saturation — that the
second disc was probably going to be discovered anyway,” says Brian
Robertson, president of the Canadian Recording Industry Association.
“There’s the sense
of discovery that’s part of this, maybe almost an element of the marketing.
The other factor is word of mouth, probably the most attractive marketing
tool of all.”
The demand for
Come On Over’s singles, many of which offered different mixes than were
on the album, probably also helped spawn Up!’s two versions.
“Recrafted” is the
term Universal Music Canada
uses to describe how the different pop, country and worldbeat versions were
assembled. Not, it’s stressed, re-recorded, “just recrafted.” That would
explain why all the vocal parts sound exactly the same on every version,
even when everything else in the mix is different.
The “recrafting” is
presumably the work of Robert John “Mutt” Lange, Ms. Twain’s co-writer,
producer, arranger and husband, as well as Kevin Churko, credited in the
album’s liner notes with having “recorded, engineered, programmed, edited,
tweaked, constructed, deconstructed, numbered, backed up, copied, deleted
and saved” the album’s various components, assembled using studios and
musicians all over the world.
CRIA’s Mr.
Robertson also points out how much the music retailing business has changed
in the five years since Ms. Twain’s last release. In 1997, few people even
knew that mp3 was a protocol for compressing digital audio, and Napster
hadn’t been invented.
In the last year,
artists have been trying strategies similar to Ms. Twain’s. Canadian punk
band Sum 41’s Does This Look Infected, for example, comes in two
versions — a “clean” one with PG-rated lyrics, as well as the foulmouthed
original — and both packages include a bonus DVD.
But Up!
takes that idea further than any album has before, and Mr. Robertson says
the industry is watching it closely for clues about how best to thwart
downloading and file-sharing.
“It’s not
precedent-setting, but it’s certainly as impressive as you’ll see in terms
of the whole value-added element. And it’s probably the general consumer’s
first exposure to it,” he says.
“I don’t know if
the record company can take credit for that,” says Donna Lidster, director
of country music at Universal Music Canada. “That was more of a Shania
Twain/Mutt Lange idea. Shania talked about giving the most possible music to
her fans. That way they don’t have to go download it. Hopefully, there’s
enough value here and the music’s great enough that you’re going to reach
into your pocket.”
Ted Kennedy,
director of programming at country music video channel CMT Canada, says its
programs with Ms. Twain as Up! was released drew its best-ever
audiences. The double CD serves to market Ms. Twain to adult contemporary
radio station and video channel programmers. “There used to be a lot of
dissatisfaction among consumers that the version you fell in love with may
or may not have been on the album,” Mr. Kennedy says.
“With this album,
no matter which version or style you prefer, it’s going to be included in
what you bought.” |
