Adele Breaks Records/Our Hearts By Making Her Bonus Tracks Unavailable to Download

I’ve been particularly excited about this album and stayed up until midnight to download the album the minute it was released. But, due to some specific marketing around the album, I couldn’t download all the songs:

“All I Ask” is for a way to buy those three bonus Adele songs.

— Mike Dang (@reportermike) November 24, 2015

Meaning the three bonus tracks only available on the album being sold exclusively at Target. Target has had a long history of brokering these deals with recording artists like Justin Timberlake and Taylor Swift.

On Quora, Dennis Hoffman, a recording engineer, explains that the Target exclusives is a marketing tool to get more customers into its stores:

Bottom line is it’s designed to move more units and to make it available in a central location that most people have access to. Target can also afford to sell these things cheaper or possibly even at loss (unlikely with a CD but nevertheless) in order to get you into the store where you might also buy something else. The average record store can’t compete with that.

Back in the suburbs where my parents live, it’d be very easy for me drive down to the local Target to grab the album, but here in NYC, going to Target is something you might have to plan your day around, and the lines are notoriously long.

After seeing my tweet, a few of my friends pointed me to possibly illicit areas of the internet where I can download or buy the bonus tracks, though I’ve abstained. Taylor Swift eventually made her bonus songs available on iTunes — four months after her album was released.

In any case, I’ve been jazzed to see this album do so well, as have others:

Doctor: Does mental illness run in your family? My Son: Well, in 2015, it was very important to my dad that Adele break every sales record.

— chris kelly (@imchriskelly) November 23, 2015

Above, Adele sings one of my favorite tracks from the album, “Water Under the Bridge.”

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