Box sets seem to be the thing at the moment. The WYWH set prompted a thought.
I find a single album of about 45 minutes to be the perfect length of an album. After this I tend to lose concentration. I find that I usually just play the first disc on multi disc packages, maybe listening to the second or third on another occasion. The rebirth of vinyl has also had the happy effect of removing a lot of filler on CD’s which can carry 80 minutes.
I have several remasters with bonus material. Most of the time the bonus stuff could have stayed safely in the archives.
I think they can be a mixed blessing.
For the ones I am buying I tend to try and have the original release as well - but that might be because I burnt the originals into my brain…
…For music I may not have such a deep connection with already the bonuses can be illuminating.
I find the endless re issues and remixed much the same. There is often nothing to add to the original that is worth listening to. I do like true additional material though as recorded at the time, not to replace the original mixes but to add to my understanding of an artist and their development. Miles and Chet spring to mind. Some of their outtakes are challenging but still worth listening to.
Sometimes a live can be interesting, such as the Miles Davis Fillmore set, sometimes a con like the recent Impulse Coltrane Love Supreme disk, that is horribly recorded.
I like a well recorded live of an artist or group. I often find them to be more interesting than the studio versions. EST comes to mind.
Very old recordings cleaned up can be a revelation but even then I find myself noting what the cleaned up versions have lost.
I’ve a significant number of boxed sets but the honest truth is that after the initial listen one tends to focus on the small number of tracks of genuine long term interest, the booklets rarely get re-read and so on. The move to streaming has only made it easier to pick out the stuff of merit and a brutally honest assessment of how I actually listen led me to the view that vinyl etc. is a fetish rather than a thing about listening to music. Streaming has made the music no less immersive to me. I don’t need a vinyl cover, CD jewel case or booklet on my knee to enhance or complete the experience. Yes, I have fond memories of all that but life moves on else you’re doomed to forever repeat those things of which you have fond memories and not try anything new.
I now steer clear of additional tracks (unreleased live recordings especially) and remasters are off the agenda. I categorise them as the musical equivalent of the hifi box you are so initially impressed with because it was set up to present or articulate things which would indeed be very impressive were it not for the fact they take away from the whole.
The exceptions for me are a lot of the long conversational Smithsonian stuff like Leadbelly, Guthrie et al or the Dylan bootleg series which. whilst very much guilty of containing much you’d listen to once or twice, also contains almost the equivalent of an entire alternative career.
Whether or not boxed sets, unless the original was of poor quality and that fixed by remastering I have little or no interest in reissues, remasters etc. I suppose it is the absence of the collector gene in me!
As for album length, to me it simply depends on the music: a full opera is fantastic at full length, typically 2-2.5 hours or so, if needed pausing and taking a comfort break between acts. Concept albums which with vinyl were/are double, e.g *the Wall", Tommy, Lamb lies down on Broadway etc I feel benefit from playing through in one sitting, and hold attention for their entirety. Streaming of course is perfect because no annoying disk changes every 20 minutes or 80 minutes for anything longer than that. Of course if the music is less engaging, maybe a disjointed album, then I may not always play a whole long album at one sitting, e.g. compilation albums, or classical with several works on an album.
Regarding “bonus tracks” etc on re-issues, occasionally a track is included that was originally intended to be part of an album but left off as it wouldn’t fit the length limitation, and so fits and adds to the album. In other cases even where I find the bonus tracks enjoyable (and I am not generally enamoured of collections of different takes or mixes), i tend to treat them as a separate mini album that I play independently of the ‘proper’ album.
I copy any CD I buy to a portable hard disk, which I have connected to my streamer. I am backing up past purchases as well.
It is just so much more pleasant to control everything sat in my chair with an iPad. I can use the web whilst I am listening to get details about what I am listening to.
Just having a file and no physical support, is a hard habit to break.