HIStoric (I'll post it here as well 
), your comparisons with other artists seem to focus on quantity rather than quality. There is certainly no lack of quantity - in fact, I think the Estate has put out too much unreleased material over the past 8 years. As Prince of Pop says, it's the quality that is the problem. Of course it is cool that we have gotten unreleased demos, but the context in which they are released matters tremendously. Yes, we got 6 new songs on the 'Michael' album (albeit versions finished by producers to varying levels of success), but they were surrounded by 3 songs performed by a vocal impersonator (give me any other Estate that has made such a gigantic mistake - you won't find it). Yes, we got a number of new demos on the 'Xscape' album, but look at the context: you had to pay extra money to get them, most of them were mastered horribly, and the project focused entirely on 'contemporized' mixes by external producers who did not even listen to Michael's original work (and made fun of it afterwards, which the Estate thought would be good to release on dvd) and a hologram of Earnest Valentino.
Heya! It does focus on quantity, you're correct, but I do that because I feel that most of the projects the Estate have delivered us have been high quality (even if they haven't interested me personally).
I mean, you really only criticised 2 projects out of 8 projects, which is still a good run I feel. Few will disagree with you on the Michael issue. It's the project I dislike the most, I really don't like the sound of the album. It dated horribly fast (months, I say), you have the Cascio issue and I think some of the songs on there like Hollywood Tonight and Much Too Soon (which is actually fine as it is on the album) deserve another shot. I don't listen to it, I don't even have it in my library and frankly it doesn't deserve Michael's name on it.
Xscape on the other hand, I still play that today. I think it was only one of the producers who didn't listen to the original demos. I don't think it was acceptable, but on the other hand, most of the contemporisations were good in my eyes (well, ears). The rest of the producers like Stargate, John McCain did (he
had to!) and as for Rodney Jerkins... well he worked on the original so he knew it better than anyone else!
As for the issue with money, I don't see that as an issue. If you can afford to spend $12 on a CD, you can afford to spend a few extra dollars and get the deluxe version too. The thing with Xscape is that it was a project that was aimed at practically everyone, the casual listeners AND the hardcore fans. Casual listeners won't really care about demos/original versions, and a cheaper version with just the new contemporised versions would probably entice them to buy it and check it out. You're getting extra material so it only makes sense to pay a little bit extra. I think the approach was fine and look, at the end of the day everyone got what they wanted material-wise and that's what really matters.
That, to me, is an utter waste. It is exactly because there is only a finite amount of unreleased Michael Jackson material left, that you should treat each outtake as a small treasure. Give us their backstory, take us back to the time they were created and some insight into what they could have become - give each of these songs their moment in the spotlight. Don't present them as afterthoughts, badly mixed, randomly thrown together from different eras, and without context and background information. I would gladly go 20 years without the release of any new material and just repackages if it meant that Michael would get the kinds of releases he deserves by that time (which is one reason why I don't see why some people think this 'Scream' repackage is a problem).
Anyone who genuinely expects posthumous releases to be as good as products Michael created while alive, is being unrealistic. But I think most fans who criticize the Estate simply want them to focus on Michael's work: demos, outtakes, alternate versions, live concerts, stories documenting the unreleased projects, etc. It is not about expecting releases to be as good as when he was here, it's about celebrating and respecting the integrity of the work he left behind.
I feel I should point out that at least on Bad 25 and Xscape, the booklet does go into some detail about each of the new demos/songs presented. I don't know how much in depth as I'm too lazy to go get my copy of the CDs and check, but I do remember that. Joseph Vogel even wrote an essay detailing the Xscape tracks for it's booklet, I enjoyed reading that the day it came out.
Michael I felt was all over the place, but Xscape was so much more of the standard I expect. I enjoyed the quality of the songs given (Helped by LA Reid's policy of only picking songs Michael recorded multiple times and had a clear interest in), I enjoyed most of the contemporisations, the songs were given background info and context in the booklet. The mixing/mastering issues, I've never really personally noticed myself? The mastering is loud on some of the contemporisations - mainly APWNN - but I put that up to the general mastering style of today. Chicago's demo is in mono but I never would've noticed if you guys didn't point it out. I feel there might be a legitimate reason for that we don't know of though, I feel that because it is something rather big to slip past the engineers + QC. Different eras? It's a fair comment, it's more evident in the demos than the contemporary versions, which are what I listen to more often. I feel other fans listen to the demos more so I can totally get why it stands out for you guys more
While I feel Xscape hits many of those marks, I would love your approach with the rest of the material. Time and time again I have said I'd really love a project that is similar to The Beatles Anthology series actually. Get a whole bunch of demos/alternative takes/unreleased songs/studio chatter and present them in deluxe albums where we can hear them in context with the other songs of the era, as well as find out so much information on them.
The below image is taken from the CD booklet of Anthology 2 (right click > open image in a new tab for full size!). Each song is presented with great detail along with great behind the scenes imagery to compliment. There was so much care and detail into these packages that it was such an incredible project, it provided a superb insight into the minds of some of history's greatest musicians. Look at the technical details in these notes! It's discussing both the history and technical details of the track. The Beatles are artists that deserved the treatment, and so does Michael! Also it's great to hear studio chatter, the Fab Four have great banter haha.
I feel such a project could offer an insight into Michael we rarely see, the Beat It demo went viral back in 2014 and I had a friend come up to me at school, telling me she heard it and thought it was so cool that Michael worked that way.
