I hate hidden "tracks" on CDs

[jducoeur]

Hate them, hate them, hate them. You've probably encountered this: where the final track seems to end, but actually has a bunch of silence followed by another song, to see if you're going to keep listening, or just give up and switch albums.

They were a cute gimmick back in the days of LPs, but they're just plain irritating when I'm doing most of my listening on a shuffled iPod. It's especially annoying when it's a really good last track, ending with several minutes of silence, and then a cutesy final song that isn't nearly as good: this often makes ripping the track more trouble than it's worth, since I don't want that silence to show up in Shuffle Play. (Yes, I can snip it at the start of the silence, but it's a hassle I'm tired of.)

Really: enough is enough. It was clever the first thousand times, but it's an idea whose time has long since passed...

Comments

[corwyn-ap.livejournal.com]

And really, wasn't the point to add some value to CD buyers without making it too obvious that LP buyers were getting the short end? Do we still need to protect all those LP buyers?