Garth Brooks is up to his typical “Island of One” activities again as he teases a new album… that will only be available as part of a boxed set containing 6 previous albums, and exclusively sold through Bass Pro Shop this holiday season, with no immediate plans to release the new album by itself.
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Much like his holdout on streaming services, his on again, off again multiple retirements, and the entire Chris Gaines tomfoolery, Garth seems to be playing to his biggest fan… Himself. According to his statements on “Inside Studio G” he believes his “True Fans” will pad the sales figures for his new album by sticking it in a box set with other albums that underperformed by modern standards, and make it only available in physical form at first with vague mentions of eventually making it available to stream exclusively on Amazon Music.
“Try to understand what this is,” Garth goes on to explain. “For anyone that’s a Garth fan from way back, the first limited series came out in the late ’90s. It was a chance for people to get all the music at a really low price … Did the same thing in 2007 I think. Did the second limited series. And now the third, and I guarantee you this will be the last limited series.”
Listen Garth, we get it. You want to control every level of distribution and consumption of your art. That’s a noble gesture, but it’s not how anyone but your 40+ year old fans from Facebook who drive outdated cars that still have CD players are consuming music these days and you are digging yourself into a further level of pop culture obsolescence by being so inaccessible with your work.
While other artists are fully embracing the digital world, Garth seems to be doubling down on being one of the most difficult artists to keep interest on for anything other than a live show, and who knows when he’ll actually do much more than a Vegas act? It’s like he’s running his career in reverse, shrinking venues and selling bootlegs at the merch table, sponsored by this week’s local car lot, but hey… if it makes him happy, then I guess that’s all that matters.
