bonus track
In terms of recorded music, a bonus track is a piece of music which has been included on specific releases or reissues of an album. This is most often done as a promotional device, either as an incentive to customers to purchase albums they might otherwise not, or to repurchase albums they already own. In contrast to hidden tracks, bonus tracks are included on track listings.
Many international releases — most commonly Japanese releases of European or American albums, but not confined to just Japan, or just music going from West to East — contain a few bonus tracks. These are often B-sides from singles; as the music industry in America and Europe moves much faster than elsewhere, more singles are released and so B-sides are released as bonus tracks so that foreign markets do not miss out. Alternate takes are other tracks often released as bonus tracks. It has also been said that this is the industry's way to get consumers to purchase albums from Japanese distributors, instead of sometimes less expensive imports from the West.
In the case of promotional CDs free with newspapers (The Sun, Daily Express etc.) they are amateur songs recorded by producers of the CD, to fill up empty space on the disc and to make the amount of songs on the disc up to 15 tracks.
See also
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