Officials from EMI in the U.K. and Capitol Records in Hollywood earlier today informed High Fidelity Review that the 30th Anniversary Hybrid Multichannel SACD Edition of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album is an active title in their catalog and remains on the market, available for purchase.
The comments came in response to messages that were posted earlier in the week on several Internet discussion groups. The messages quoted reliable sources who indicated that the recently released 30th Anniversary Edition of Dark Side of the Moon on SACD had been recently been deleted from the EMI/Capitol Records catalog.
This seemed unlikely given the strong sales of the disk to date (it sold almost 100,000 units in its first 10 weeks of release and debuted at the # 1 spot on Billboard’s Top Catalog Pop Albums chart). Even so, the Internet messages triggered a number of followup messages on the topic – as well as suggestions that Pink Floyd and SACD fans may need to hustle down to the nearest record store and pick up the SACD while copies remained available.
The Word from EMI and Capitol Records
While the folks at EMI and Capitol might like the concept of consumers rushing to buy the SACD edition of Dark Side of the Moon, they assured me there is no need to rush. An official at EMI Records headquarters in the U.K. told me that “There is no truth in these reports whatsoever. The SACD edition of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album remains available as usual.”
I then checked with Capitol Records in Hollywood to see if a spokeswoman there could shed light on the status of the Dark Side of the Moon Hybrid Multichannel SACD disc in the American market. According to the spokeswoman for Capitol Records
“The reports that you have heard that the Dark Side of the Moon SACD has been deleted from our catalog are incorrect. The SACD edition is an active title and we have no plans to change that.”
The Capitol Records spokewoman went on to praise the SACD edition noting that “Dark Side of the Moon is such a great record. Hearing it in 5.1 SACD Sound for the first time was a truly exciting experience. We are very pleased with the strong sales of the SACD version of the album as well as its audio quality.”
No Need to Rush
So there you have it from both EMI headquarters in the U.K. and Capitol Records in Hollywood. The 30th Anniversary Edition of Dark Side of the Moon on Hybrid Multichannel SACD is an active catalog item and will remain available for purchase.
Having heard the album in both 5.1 Surround SACD and Stereo SACD, I would agree with the spokeswoman at Capitol Records that it is a fine sounding SACD release. In fact, the Dark Side of the Moon SACD was recently voted the # 1 Favorite SACD by consumers on the SACDInfo.Com web site.
In any event, it’s good to know that you can proceed at your own pace to audition it and pick it up in the weeks and months ahead !