ALDI is flogging vinyl records in Australia once again starting Saturday 27 April 2024. The pattern is very similar to the last batch which went on sale just before Christmas 2023: a little Elvis and a lot of live recordings with questionable distribution.
Here are the key details:
- The discs are priced at $17.99 each, which is a buck higher than last time.
- The majority of these are live albums which rely on copyright loopholes which apply in some European countries (including the Netherlands), which mean that live material broadcast on radio is considered to be out of copyright in that country. That has led to live CD and vinyl releases which are not illegal, but which aren’t licensed by the artists/rights holders. These discs occasionally pop up on Amazon and in record stores, but it’s a little more unusual to see them mass-imported by a large brand like ALDI. That said, the actual importation doesn’t appear to be illegal either.
- Many are released by I Love Vinyl, a label associated with Khemco, which provided many of the live albums in the last ALDI sale.
- This time around, ALDI isn’t selling any bargain turntables, which is arguably no great loss to the audio market.
Here are the disc-by-disc details.
U2, Greatest Hits . . . Live: An odd mixture with most the tracks from a 21 March 1998 concert in Johannesburg, and a couple from 6 May 1983 in Boston. The list is indeed hits-heavy, with every selection a single.
The Cure, Live 1985: This particular packaging doesn’t look to have been released before. It turns out to be a Cleveland Music Hall radio broadcast on 22 October 1985 (and not, as I guessed before it went on sale, a much-bootlegged 1985 Birmingham concert). (Thanks to commenter Scott for the information!)
The Police, Greatest Hits Live: A similar title trick as the U2 disc, taken from an even wider range of concerts between 1979 and 1983 – and not, as the cover might imply, from a single gig.
Prince, Greatest Hits Live: More multi-concert madness, with various TV performances from Tokyo on 21 August 1990, Rio on 18 January 1991 and Miami on 7 June 1994 strung together. Prince and his estate are famously litigious, so the fact this release has managed to stay on the market suggests the legal loophole isn’t easily challenged.
KISS, Crazy Crazy Nights . . . Live: This lumps together three separate sources: a 1 April 1974 concert in Cleveland, a 12 August 1988 gig in New York, and a 5 September 1994 gig in Buenos Aires. And that makes the cover, showing the 1980-1982 lineup with Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley and Eric Carr, particularly deceptive. Frehley is only on the Cleveland track, and Carr is only on the New York tracks.
Bon Jovi, Rock Hard Live In Philadelphia 1984: This one actually shows up on Spotify in Australia, and is a radio-broadcast gig from 3 March 1984. Note that because of the 1984 date, when Bon Jovi had only released one album, none of the expected hits are present.
Elvis Presley, Love Songs: ALDI seems incapable of selling vinyl records without throwing a random Elvis compilation into the mix. That said, at least these do actually seem to be licensed. Well-known hits (‘Love Me Tender’) sit alongside songs we don’t typically associate with Elvis (Cole Porter’s ‘True Love’).
Johnny Cash, Folsom Prison Blues: Sneaky. This isn’t Cash’s classic 1968 live album At Folsom Prison, but a compilation of various live tracks. ALDI sold a disc under the same title last August, but with different cover art.
Classic 60s Number Ones: The same disc was in the December sale. As I noted at that time, the bias is very much early 1960s, with nothing later than 1962. These are original recordings, but it’s a really partial representation of the decade.
70’s Disco: This returns to another sneaky trick we’ve seen in earlier ALDI sales: compiling tracks which aren’t the original hit versions, but later re-recordings, sometimes live. So these are officially licensed in a strict sense, but they’re not the tracks you remember.
As ever, these are aimed entirely at casual listeners. Completists are likely to already have these recordings in some form, but no doubt some will feel the pull. Not me though.
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