As it seems that the band has gotten more conservative in its album-specific anniversary releases (NAIHF, Chronic Town) could it be that material is being set aside for the “mythical box set”, perhaps to be released for the band’s 50th anniversary?
The 2030 anniversary falls the year after we can expect the Around The Sun 25th anniversary reissue and there’s a four-year gap between that and Accelerate, so plenty of room to have a significant anniversary campaign.
Maybe we’ll finally get the Bombay studio session, the outtakes from the Fables album sessions in London, the Pat Biddle soundboard tapes from the early shows in Athens, etc.?
What would you most like to see included on a 50th anniversary boxset, and how would you like to see an anniversary campaign rolled out?
I doubt that they’re saving up for something 8 years down the line, there’d be no reason for them to hold off on material that would fit these anniversary releases so perfectly. At least for NAIHF, I’m pretty sure Mike said there just wasn’t a lot of extra content available because a lot of the album was recorded on the road. I am curious if they’re gonna do an anniversary release for Around the Sun tho, considering how it’s not a favorite of the band or the fans.
As mentioned in another thread, there was supposed to have been a 40th anniversary boxset in 2020 (confirmed by Stipe in at least one interview) but it was pushed back due to Covid. In conjunction with the release of the 40th anniversary release of the Hib-tone version of “Radio Free Europe” last year, there was mention of other “celebrations” of the 40th anniversary. I have no idea what was planned but as far as I know, they never materialized. I also have no idea what was to be included on the box in 2020 as it apparently never got that far along. Per this Bloomberg article (which is now behind a paywall), REMTV was meant to test the waters for similar releases in the future. Poor sales didn’t bode well for that as streams/downloads did better than the physical release. Perhaps someday we’ll see some sort of boxset but if and when that happens remains to be seen. At this point, I’m not holding my breath. As for what it might include, I leave that up to the experts of what is and isn’t in the vault that remains unreleased.
I imagine there is plenty of material out there (even from NAIHF), but there’s not enough of a market, particularly with physical sales greatly diminished. Whereas the Beatles can continue to generate interest in projects such as Get Back, I think REM has faded from many consumers’ minds.
I bought the AFTP and Monster anniversary releases for the bonus content, but if they continue to bunt moving forward like they did for NAIHF, I’m out.