Well, their mangement didn't have the foresight to see what would happen and it might just blow up in their faces. Releasing it only in one territory will be counter-productive, they should have not released it at all, or put it out as previously scheduled. The Journey fans will get the Japanese CD, it's that simple. That will diminish US sales from the Journey fanbase at home. The only way it will climb the charts come February, then, is if they score a massive hit that gets people outside the fanbase to buy their record. And it would be ridiculous to count on it. Maybe if it came out a month later things would be okay, but not six.

Second, is Napster. The CD will be all over Napster immediately. Only this time, the songs will be top flight quality, not the awful-sounding tracks that are available now.

Of course, tons of fans will rather take this road instead of ordering it at the expensive Japanese price and reason, "Well, I'll live with a CDR for the time being and buy the real thing come February". What's the problem with this approach? That the appeal will wear off, and although they still may very much enjoy the disc, willl they pay 16 + dollars for a disc they have already played out and own? Some will, but they will be the hard core Journey fans dying to have the real deal, and naturally enough, they won't have to buy it in the US because they bought the Japanese version already. People who aren't Journey fans and simply like the music won't be dying for the packaged CD.

And even if you are a Journey fan, you might not buy it because of the psychological factor involved when a disc "gets old". Meaning, even if the disc is very good, if you live with it for nearly six months and wear the songs out, it will no longer be worth so much. Right now, I'm sure many of us would dash to the store, plunk down the money, and leave happy. But the songs are new, we have only heard crap quality versions, it's exciting to have a new release, etc.....All songs, no matter how good, lose much of their initial appeal over time. That's just the way we are as humans. I'm not saying you like them less, but they're no longer the tremendously fresh and exciting goodies they were when you first unwrap the CD and pop it into the player.

So if you've heard the CD hundreds of times, it's had its run in your cars's CD changer for many months, it won't be worth the same to you anymore. Because the initial frenzy has worn itself out. So maybe many people, come February, won't go buy it anymore because the CD isnt worth nearly as much when the impulse factor of owning the songs is gone, and you've already played it to death. It's kinda like buying a book you've already read. You can certainly enjoy it again, but it's not the same as the fitrst time, so you won't pay as much for it anymore. It's not as necessary to buy the Journey CD if it's been part of your collection for six months, CDR format or not. And the people who would want the nice CD package will have ordered it from Japan since October.

I'm not saying this will happen, I don't know if it'll go that far...just something to think about.

Cheers,
Jack.