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Thriller 40th Anniversary

I would say they should at the very least drop Thriller video in 4K this friday - thay way it can build up momentum before Halloween.

Also - get TV channels to air the MJ Halloween Special again. (I did not really like it, but it would be nice promo)

Then hopefully they will release a single - and maybe announce The Making of Thriller and Thriller video in 4K will be available on Netflix and can be bought on Blu-Ray and UHD 4K. - If Ghosts have been made into 4K it would seem fitting to release it before Halloween too. - Along with The Making of. - And if they have more bonus footage regarding Thriller and Ghosts, then release it!

I have not seen a single promotion about T40 - and if I was not a fan and on MJJC I would not know it was coming.

They need some serios promotion soon.
 
Hiker said:
Give the Estate a chance. So far they seem to be doing better than expectations on T40. ok, sure, the expectations were really really low, but still lets be happy we are getting some good songs. I like the way they are revealing song by song per week. Lets not write them off just yet!
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Give them a chance lol. Sorry but this has been said every time they do something since 2010. They are inept, it is what it is.
 
I hope they'll Release A single next week, And start promoting the album.
This is the moment
I wish They release thriller single, B Side Starlight.. this means next revealed Song tomorrow Would be starlight.
But...
 
It would actually be very smart - if they do not wish to release Starlight on disc 2 - then release on of the new songs from disc 2 as a single - and add Starlight and TGIM solo demo on the single. That would be a total win-win.

Promotion needs to kickstart very soon. - 1 month to the release - and more importantly only 12 days till Halloween. - They need focus on Thriller and the Thriller-video now. It has to come some time before Halloween. - Release something friday would make sense.

Thriller is a Halloween song and it charts every year around Halloween. It's a no-brainer that it has to be used and taken advantage of. Come on Estate. - Release something NOW !!! - Thriller 4K and single thanks very much. - And for Gods sake... NO REMIX single release... Give us a proper song as single - maybe with some b-sides.
 
Well if nothing promotional happens then I can only assume LN has left a much bigger footprint than many of you expected. I don’t see any other reason that makes sense. Maybe they’re afraid of the possible(probable?) backlash that will occur when they promote the hell out of a new MJ product.

For me it was the same with the musical, if I wasn’t a member here I still would not know of its existence.
 
filmandmusic said:
Well if nothing promotional happens then I can only assume LN has left a much bigger footprint than many of you expected. I don’t see any other reason that makes sense. Maybe they’re afraid of the possible(probable?) backlash that will occur when they promote the hell out of a new MJ product.

For me it was the same with the musical, if I wasn’t a member here I still would not know of its existence.
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An expectation was set by the Estate in May, though, when articles reporting on the press release stated "several anniversay activations are planned between now and the end of the year". Those articles indicated it was starting then with the woeful Thriller 40 merch drop. We are now over 5 months on from that and, as far I can see, there have been no "anniversary activations". From their wording, I was expecting a 6 month span of things celebrating Thriller.

All this is going to be now is standard album promo. And that's even if there's any of that! There was no need to indicate "several anniversary activations" throughout the year. Just leave that out. It's not unusual for a record company to promote a release in the weeks prior. There is nothing newsworthy in that. Sure, it could all burst into life over the coming days, but despite that, this is not how it was put to us in May.

Furthermore, why is the Thriller documentary only in production now? Did they forget about their release schedule? I realise it's unclear and we don't have any indication of how far along it is but again, based on anything that's been told to us, we can only assume that it isn't finished and is not yet ready for release. This is similar to the Bad 25 debacle. Promo was better for that admittedly, but timing was way off. The Bad 25 documentary aired about 3 months after the release of the album by which point it was dead in the water after debuting respectably on the charts and then dropping off the edge of the cliff. Timing is everything in marketing. You build up a head of steam and you strike at the perfectly timed moment. The Estate is spending money to make a Thriller documentary and by all indications, it's going to debut much later, just as Bad 25 did. I'm sure they will still succeed in finding a broadcaster but imagine if the Thriller doc aired worldwide the week of the album's release. It would only be a positive piece of cross-promotion. When Paul Simon's Graceland album received it's 25th anniversary in the same quarter as Bad 25, the accompanying documentary aired on the BBC the night before the album was released, and Graceland's 25th anniversary performed far better on the UK charts than Bad.

Thriller's annual Halloween resurgence is another opportunity to springboard. It's all suspiciously quiet on that front too if we had hoped for them to capitalise on that.

I fear we're hurtling towards another predictably lacklustre promotion of a Michael Jackson anniversary album and time is running out.
 
Maybe they will announce some news tomorrow when they announce the next song.

I really hope we hear some news regarding promotion and videoes etc. very soon. - I hope there will be a single release too.
 
It’s interesting to me that people are disappointed that this isn’t being promoted to casual listeners, while also being disappointed that the track listing isn’t catering to longtime fans that are familiar with or have already purchased some of the songs.
 
Let's be honest Thriller 40 is an exercise by the Estate. They're dipping their toes back in the water to see if its safe and they're using Michael's most commercially successful and universally loved album to do it.

If it's well received by the public, I think the Estate will be more active next year, with a bigger new release. But right now they're using a 40th anniversary of the biggest selling album history as a safe bet.

The tracklist of Disc 2 is the biggest indicator of that so far, they're not releasing/sacrificing any songs, we haven't heard in some form, (aside from Lovely Way) they're not going use any songs with hit potential on this release like they did with Price Of Fame and I'm So Blue on Bad 25.

If they release the short films for, Billie Jean, Beat It and Thriller in 4K I'll be pleased.
 
Hulkamaniac said:
Guns N Roses releasing a full song from their 1991 New York gig, from their upcomig FULL BLU RAY concert.
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Last year they rereleased Nirvana's Nevermind, with 4 complete live shows from the Nevermind tour.

Next month Guns N' Roses will rerelease Use Your Illusion, with 5 complete live shows from the Use Your Illusion tour.

Meanwhile, we've never had any official release for the tour that accompanied Thriller.

Again, I ask, why is MJ always a second-class citizen.

AlwaysThere said:
we’re getting a full second disc of demos and tracks in high-quality.
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Let's not overdo it. They're selling 10 songs on a second disc. Probably 30 minutes of music. Half of which have already been officially released. 20 songs would be a full second disc.

As for quality, the 2001 SE of Thriller sounded objectively a lot worse than the original. And then T25 sounded a lot worse than the SE.

There is every expectation that T40 will be the worst sounding version of Thriller ever released. That's the main reason people are interested in the MFSL version of Thriller, instead of the Sony version.
 
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R1chard said:
Last year they rereleased Nirvana's Nevermind, with 4 complete live shows from the Nevermind tour.

Next month Guns N' Roses will rerelease Use Your Illusion, with 5 complete live shows from the Use YourI llusion tour.

Meanwhile, we've never had any official release for the tour that accompanied Thriller.

Again, I ask, why is MJ always a second-class citizen.
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BeCaUse ThEre Is No RelEAseABLE HQ cOnCert MATerIAl OThEr ThAn MUnIcH 97 ANd PEoPLeIs NOt InteREstEd In COncErTs

wojak-soy-boy-angry-buck-teeth-thumbnail.jpg


...is something @AlwaysThere would say LOL
 
Hulkamaniac said:
BeCaUse ThEre Is No RelEAseABLE HQ cOnCert MATerIAl OThEr ThAn MUnIcH 97
...is something @AlwaysThere would say LOL
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Never said that actually haha, though it wouldn’t surprise me if HQ copies of most shows weren’t in the estate’s possession for whatever reason.

I just don’t care about concerts.
R1chard said:
Last year they rereleased Nirvana's Nevermind, with 4 complete live shows from the Nevermind tour.

Next month Guns N' Roses will rerelease Use Your Illusion, with 5 complete live shows from the Use YourI llusion tour.

Meanwhile, we've never had any official release for the tour that accompanied Thriller.

Again, I ask, why is MJ always a second-class citizen.



Let's not overdo it. They're selling 10 songs on a second disc. Probably 30 minutes of music. Half of which have already been officially released.

As for quality, the 2001 SE of Thriller sounded objectively a lot worse than the original. And then T25 sounded a lot worse than the SE.

There is every expectation that T40 will be the worst sounding version of Thriller ever released. That's the main reason people are interested in the MFSL version of Thriller, instead of the Sony version.
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Releasing a Victory Tour concert would require the collaboration of all living Jackson brothers. Prior to the reissues last year, their working relationship was… contentious, to say the least. Let’s not pretend like they can just release a concert without issue.

As for the second disc, only one song thus far has been previously released. (I don’t count the original cuts of “Behind the Mask” and “Best of Joy”/“The Toy,” in the same way nobody would categorize an unheard demo of “Billie Jean” as a previously released song.) The others are demos of previously released songs, high quality cuts of leaked tracks, and at least one never before heard song. Obviously it isn’t perfect, but the refusal of some to acknowledge the great parts of it, and instead pivot the discussion to complaining about what we aren't getting, is astonishing.

I miss the days immediately following the announcement of “What a Lovely Way to Go” haha. What a positive and exciting time.
 
I'm still super hyped, I'm easy to please. It helps that all the songs on the second disc so far are favorites of mine.

It's all very impressive what Nirvana, Prince or Guns N' Roses release but they haven't had any controversies attached to their names. Why can't you be lucky something gets released in the first place? Any other artist would are dead and buried if they had gone through what MJ has gone through. In normal circumstances we don't get a T40 after 2019 but we do and it is great!

Let the Estate dip the market, let them be careful they have every right to be so. All the current projects and the projects to come are a miracle, he was very very closed to being cancelled completely, don't forget that...
 
AlwaysThere said:
It’s interesting to me that people are disappointed that this isn’t being promoted to casual listeners, while also being disappointed that the track listing isn’t catering to longtime fans that are familiar with or have already purchased some of the songs.
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What exactly are you trying to say here? That it's cool that the promotion for the release so far has been executed by a 14 year old with bad grammar on twitter? What does that have to do with people being annoyed about being resold music?

The marketing thing is quite simple and literally everyone else does it properly, like someone earlier said, they are inept.
 
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Hiker said:
I like the way they are revealing song by song per week. Lets not write them off just yet!
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You do? I think it's extremely lame. It's lame when they reveal rosters for videogames one by one as well. What next, they reveal the actors in a movie one by one?

What does it achieve? Do they think it creates hype or something? They're just song titles. Worse than that, they're titles for songs nobody has even heard. What's the point? It just seems like they're desperate to create continuous hype.

samijackson1958 said:
wish They release thriller single
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It goes back to a point I made recently. We all know Thriller as the album with 7 top-ten singles. I'd like to change that. Wouldn't it be good to release one of the other two? Lady in My Life single? Wouldn't it be better to know Thriller as the album with 8 top-ten singles?
 
ChrisC said:
An expectation was set by the Estate in May, though, when articles reporting on the press release stated "several anniversay activations are planned between now and the end of the year". Those articles indicated it was starting then with the woeful Thriller 40 merch drop. We are now over 5 months on from that and, as far I can see, there have been no "anniversary activations". From their wording, I was expecting a 6 month span of things celebrating Thriller.
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Is it possible that T40 will be the start of a year of 'anniversary activations'? I'm not saying I want them to do that or that it would be a good idea but I'm trying to make sense of what they are doing. Or, more accurately, what they are not doing. Are there going to be 'activations' (stupid word, lol) for 40 yrs since BJ, Motown 25 (very strongly linked to Thriller, obvs, even though technically a separate thing), Thriller the single and the short film? I have no PR or marketing nous so no idea if such an approach could work but I really am struggling to understand exactly what they are doing. Time is pressing on. For maximum impact re the marketing of this thing they only have a few more weeks left.

Maybe they decided a short, sharp campaign would work better than a long, slow drip drip? 🤷‍♀️

ChrisC said:
All this is going to be now is standard album promo. And that's even if there's any of that! There was no need to indicate "several anniversary activations" throughout the year. Just leave that out. It's not unusual for a record company to promote a release in the weeks prior. There is nothing newsworthy in that. Sure, it could all burst into life over the coming days, but despite that, this is not how it was put to us in May.
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Agreed.

ChrisC said:
Thriller's annual Halloween resurgence is another opportunity to springboard. It's all suspiciously quiet on that front too if we had hoped for them to capitalise on that.
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That's what worries me. How quiet is it atm. Doesn't feel right.
 
SmoothGangsta said:
What exactly are you trying to say here? That it's cool that the promotion for the release so far has been executed by a 14 year old with bad grammar on twitter? What does that have to do with people being annoyed about being resold music?

The marketing thing is quite simple and literally everyone else does it properly, like someone earlier said, they are inept.
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High-level marketing efforts are usually reserved for projects that are geared towards the general audience, not hardcore fans who would already be privy to the project. And yet, including “Sunset Driver” and “Got the Hots” on disc 2, which casual listeners largely haven’t heard, is a controversial decision because it doesn’t cater to us. So, who precisely is this project for?

Are we really pretending that the estates of George Michael, Prince, and the Beatles have done above-average marketing for their reissues? Press releases, a fun tease or two that gets no attention beyond the core fan community, and that’s it. That’s literally what the estate is doing. And one quick gander into any fan forum for the above listed artists will show that the argument that those estates aren’t pulling it off nearly as well as MJ fans insist.

I dunno. I just feel the inconsistency and complaints are totally out of proportion with the actual events. “They aren’t promoting a reissue to casuals, even though it’s supposed to be aimed at us!” What exactly is the expectation that isn’t being surpassed?
 
AlwaysThere said:
High-level marketing efforts are usually reserved for projects that are geared towards the general audience, not hardcore fans who would already be privy to the project. And yet, including “Sunset Driver” and “Got the Hots” on disc 2, which casual listeners largely haven’t heard, is a controversial decision because it doesn’t cater to us. So, who precisely is this project for?
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Out of everyone, I was hoping to hear the answer from you.
AlwaysThere said:
Are we really pretending that the estates of George Michael, Prince, and the Beatles have done above-average marketing for their reissues? Press releases, a fun tease or two that gets no attention beyond the core fan community, and that’s it. That’s literally what the estate is doing. And one quick gander into any fan forum for the above listed artists will show that the argument that those estates aren’t pulling it off nearly as well as MJ fans insist.
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They do what the Estate should do: show us some love. Niche releases won't hurt. Everything is focused on the casuals and potential new fans, yet we're the ones showing the green to them.
I'm a SA fan, tell me exactly how do the Vegas show and/or the Broadway show appeal to me? I tell you I cannot afford flying all the way there just for it, so people should really chill and quit acting like these are dealbreakers for everyone. The deluxe edition of Bad 25, which was something I've been eager to get from day one, was never released here. So, for me, it was just TII, Michael and Xscape for the past 13 years.
Apart from that, notice how most of the other Estates and artists also release new music ever so often, but have a bunch of releases focused on specific niches in between or even along with the major releases. They don't have to release new music every year, but again, it's been 8 years since the last release (Scream doesn't count, compilations are re-releases with new packaging). As much as I agree with the whole argument of the studio material being finite, they do act like studio material is all there is. How about live concerts? There's a whole niche for it, production costs are really low (since we are in the digital era, so it's just a matter of ripping and uploading it somewhere) and all their excuses are not valid since the target public for such release is already aware of it all (quality, mixing, etc).
But yes, how naive I am, doing nothing is much better than doing something, right? "Oh, but One and MJ the Musical", yeah, only US and EU fans are considered.
 
MJbr2 said:
Out of everyone, I was hoping to hear the answer from you.

They do what the Estate should do: show us some love. Niche releases won't hurt. Everything is focused on the casuals and potential new fans, yet we're the ones showing the green to them.
I'm a SA fan, tell me exactly how do the Vegas show and/or the Broadway show appeal to me? I tell you I cannot afford flying all the way there just for it, so people should really chill and quit acting like these are dealbreakers for everyone. The deluxe edition of Bad 25, which was something I've been eager to get from day one, was never released here. So, for me, it was just TII, Michael and Xscape for the past 13 years.
Apart from that, notice how most of the other Estates and artists also release new music ever so often, but have a bunch of releases focused on specific niches in between or even along with the major releases. They don't have to release new music every year, but again, it's been 8 years since the last release (Scream doesn't count, compilations are re-releases with new packaging). As much as I agree with the whole argument of the studio material being finite, they do act like studio material is all there is. How about live concerts? There's a whole niche for it, production costs are really low (since we are in the digital era, so it's just a matter of ripping and uploading it somewhere) and all their excuses are not valid since the target public for such release is already aware of it all (quality, mixing, etc).
But yes, how naive I am, doing nothing is much better than doing something, right? "Oh, but One and MJ the Musical", yeah, only US and EU fans are considered.
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You’re not wrong about the heightened focus on the US market; that’s absolutely something that’s worth addressing.

As for releases, I’ve said it before and I’ll gladly say it again: the purpose of an estate is not to cater to fans with new material. Just because it’s a commonality doesn’t make it the foundation of their existence. The argument that the estate sucks because they aren’t consistently funneling material down our throats, from a vault that is more limited than any of us are truly privy to, means nothing. Frustrating? Sure. But an estate’s goal is to maintain the deceased artist’s business and financial expenses, and thus far they’ve done an immaculate job. Everything else is supplementary, and while they have screwed up time and time again, the idea that they’re “not doing their job” because they aren’t catering to fan demands shows a fundamental misunderstanding of what they actually are here for.

As for what they could release, what evidence do we have that any of it exists? Do we know how deep their well of concert footage goes, given that it’s been established that plenty of things have gone missing due to poor planning over the years? Should they completely drain the vault at one time? Is it worth it to release things just because they exist, rather than take into consideration how MJ would feel? What about people such as myself who don’t care about concerts and only want music—what do they get out of it? There’s no concrete answer to any of these questions, hence why every posthumous project for any artist is clouded with some form of pessimism, especially for an artist as particular as MJ was.

It’s just so frustrating trying to show optimism towards releases, only to be drowned with a barrage of, “I want this song! Where are the concerts? Why can’t they do this? I want this now or I’m gonna be mad!” That’s not even constructive criticism, it’s (my favorite word) entitled whining that the estate isn’t doing something that they never promised, nor are obligated, to do.

I’m just thrilled that we’re finally getting a Thriller reissue worth buying and, while I’m far from impressed with them, it’s still a decent project. But perhaps I’m just taking what I’m given, rather than demanding more and more and more and more.
 
AlwaysThere said:
High-level marketing efforts are usually reserved for projects that are geared towards the general audience, not hardcore fans who would already be privy to the project. And yet, including “Sunset Driver” and “Got the Hots” on disc 2, which casual listeners largely haven’t heard, is a controversial decision because it doesn’t cater to us. So, who precisely is this project for?

Are we really pretending that the estates of George Michael, Prince, and the Beatles have done above-average marketing for their reissues? Press releases, a fun tease or two that gets no attention beyond the core fan community, and that’s it. That’s literally what the estate is doing. And one quick gander into any fan forum for the above listed artists will show that the argument that those estates aren’t pulling it off nearly as well as MJ fans insist.

I dunno. I just feel the inconsistency and complaints are totally out of proportion with the actual events. “They aren’t promoting a reissue to casuals, even though it’s supposed to be aimed at us!” What exactly is the expectation that isn’t being surpassed?
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The Beatles releases are accompanied by basic things, singles releasing to promote the release, marketing that actually tells people what's releasing and doesn't say "this song" instead of naming the track. You're excusing the bad marketing and trying to use the fact it's aimed at us a way to act like it doesn't exist when the two things don't cancel one another out.

Not really sure what it is with some people here and trying to make valid complaints look invalid for no reason. It's basically going "I don't like seeing people complaining".
 
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AlwaysThere said:
As for releases, I’ve said it before and I’ll gladly say it again: the purpose of an estate is not to cater to fans with new material. Just because it’s a commonality doesn’t make it the foundation of their existence. The argument that the estate sucks because they aren’t consistently funneling material down our throats, from a vault that is more limited than any of us are truly privy to, means nothing. Frustrating? Sure. But an estate’s goal is to maintain the deceased artist’s business and financial expenses, and thus far they’ve done an immaculate job. Everything else is supplementary, and while they have screwed up time and time again, the idea that they’re “not doing their job” because they aren’t catering to fan demands shows a fundamental misunderstanding of what they actually are here for.
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I agree with you to an extent, but if they're willing to release stuff every now and then, despite of what it is, they should do it right.
AlwaysThere said:
As for what they could release, what evidence do we have that any of it exists? Do we know how deep their well of concert footage goes, given that it’s been established that plenty of things have gone missing due to poor planning over the years? Should they completely drain the vault at one time? Is it worth it to release things just because they exist, rather than take into consideration how MJ would feel? What about people such as myself who don’t care about concerts and only want music—what do they get out of it? There’s no concrete answer to any of these questions, hence why every posthumous project for any artist is clouded with some form of pessimism, especially for an artist as particular as MJ was.
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We do have evidence to a bunch of stuff from various sources over the years and I could mention a few if you want. It's not saying they have everything, but assuming only a handful of concerts remain in the vault is unconceivable. Also, I don't mean they have to release it all at once, but at least a concert every once in a while, for example.
If they were to "take into consideration how MJ would feel", nothing would ever be put out. If I remember correctly, Michael was adamantly against the release of his unfinished/unreleased studio material. Still here we are.
It wouldn't make a difference to people who aren't into concerts, hence why I said "niche release". Why does it always have to be about you (as in people who want new music)? 75% of what the Estate has done since 2009 is release studio material. It wouldn't hurt to put out a concert every now and then for the ones who want them and show some love to everyone. I much prefer concerts over new music as I feel most of it is subpar, still I ain't complaining that the Estate is releasing a new album.
AlwaysThere said:
It’s just so frustrating trying to show optimism towards releases, only to be drowned with a barrage of, “I want this song! Where are the concerts? Why can’t they do this? I want this now or I’m gonna be mad!” That’s not even constructive criticism, it’s (my favorite word) entitled whining that the estate isn’t doing something that they never promised, nor are obligated, to do.

I’m just thrilled that we’re finally getting a Thriller reissue worth buying and, while I’m far from impressed with them, it’s still a decent project. But perhaps I’m just taking what I’m given, rather than demanding more and more and more and more.
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Okay, some people are overreacting, but that's the way it is. People have opinions, especially when they're consumers. However, their opinions don't reflect the absolute truth, nor do yours.
You're optimistic about it, nice. Some people still have their complaints. I respect the fact that you want new music and seems to be satisfied with this release, good for you. The first thing you did was argue with my idea that it'd be nice for them to release concerts because it doesn't suit you.
So, you're one and the same with people who are overreacting and demanding stuff: you're all making it about yourselves at some point.
Also, if you just accept to take what you're given, that's on you. Some other people like to have a voice. Democracy in its finest.

I rest my case.
 
Every artists popularity declines over time. Fans age and eventually die. A good example is the Beatles they have declined in popularity mostly because there fanbase in declining for reasons I stated. It is hard to keep reinventing a aging artist or a deceased one. MJ fans are aging and we are the ones who would buy the unreleased music and concerts. A good majority of his fanbase would have been born in the 70’s or early 80’s. I care mostly about the music. If they hold onto the material for a long time, I will never hear it. So, I guess I’m selfish in a way but I want to hear it before I’m gone. They won’t be able to pull a rabbit out of their hat in 15 years and have a bunch of new MJ fans to buy the unheard material. Most people will never know it exists. With a do over they should have released all the newest recorded material right after MJs passing that was when his popularity was at its peak. I don’t mean like it was in the 80’s but you get what I’m saying. MJ will never again be as popular as he was following his death.
 
this probably doesn’t count as ‘thriller 40’ promotion, but it’s in the spirit of the general ‘thriller’ season.

Jo O’Meara was part of the popular 90’s uk group s club 7. she’s always cited Michael and the Jackson 5 as her influences growing up. her recent cover of ‘thriller’ is for a children’s hospital charity - which is something Michael would definitely approve of.
 
SmoothGangsta said:
The differences are still there, though.
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Yeah, 4-5 concerts and multiple discs of alternate takes.

The 4-5 concerts probably have vastly different set lists (unlike MJ who’s show to show precision goes without saying) and I’d rather 1 disc of unheard demos than 3 of alternate takes.
 
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