How often do you listen to bonus tracks?

[DragonAttack]

An old school 'the album is over when the album is over' person......

yet.....at the time, I wish I would have been able to purchase Qryche's 'Promised Land' with 'Real World' on it, rather than digging for 'The Last Action Hero' CD.  'My' version of the LP had it placed it before 'Lady Jane'

I've never played a purchased CD in a car.  Ever.  I made cassette copies back in the day.  All of my homemade CDrs have 15 seconds of silence at the end, so that the disc doesn't go from the ending track to first track instantly, giving me time to remove it.  I'll add bonuses, but also place 15 seconds between the end of the album proper and 'my' bonuses.  I also insert 6-8 seconds of silence between sides one and two.  A:  because I'm anal.  And, B:  because it used to take 30-60 seconds to lift, replace, clean, and gently place the needle back down.

The Beatles:  all nonalbum 45s from the era of the album are added at the end.  Gives me the option to listen to them first or last.  For 'Revolver', 'Sgt. Pepper', and 'The Beatles'.....there's 30 seconds after the album proper....just in case (or nothing added).

Queen:  nonalbum, era-related live, BBC, bonus tracks added after the silence.  I've made so many as gifts, that I figure it would not be fair to not include some additional material. Who wants to lug around two discs, when one will suffice?  And if traffic is bad heading home, I've got the extra stuff that I might not normally listen to.  Some of their albums have so much related bonus material, that one or two extra discs are necessary anyway.  Or you have something like 'The Miracle'......where I've inserted three nonalbum Bsides and a solo track into 'my' album, while removing four of the album tracks. 

Oddly:  their remasters from 2011:  an absolute fantastic extended version of 'It's A Hard Life' is not included, yet the bonus disc only filled around 30 minutes (thank you, public library)

Led Zep III:  'Hey Hey What Can I Do' fits perfectly in the middle of side two, and 'Hats Off To (Roy) Harper' is hats off removed, because I don't want to screw up the beginning or end of that side.

Genesis, Journey, REM, Rush, Styx, Springsteen, Tull, Van Halen, The Who, Yes, etc etc....  I 'wish' all CDs had bonus material of demos/ live material added.  Insert a 15-30 second gap as an additional track, and then fill the rest of the disc up.  More bang for the buck.

As to Dream Theater:  there's never any room for bonus material  

[Lethean]

Depends. If they're actual new songs, yes. If they're live tracks, old demos, instrumental versions, random covers I pass.

Same for me. But if I'm listening a whole album I usually skip the bonus track at the end if it doesn't fit. For example Bury and Root by Leprous are good songs, but after the closers Contaminate Me and The Last Milestone there's no point to listen another song.

You know, this is a good point, and you're probably "right" about both of those.  However, I listen to the bonus track in both cases right after the end of the album and don't have any issues with it at all.  Especially Bury.  Maybe it's just because I've always listened to it that way, but it seems to cap things off with an extra burst of energy.

[PetFish]

I think the question is asking for a black/white answer, when I think it's been shown that it's definitely more grey (gray?).  Generally speaking, I can enjoy them without issues such as "if they wanted it, it would have made it" or "they were left off for a reason".

Bonus Track / B-Side = Completely finished and polished that, for whatever reason(s), didn't make the final tracklist.
Demo = Rough take used as a guide to make the complete version, often used to weed-out ones that aren't working.

Ultimately, either one can be good/bad, it's all subjective.  We are also in a time when the order doesn't mean much these days (albums like "The Astonishing" being the exception), what with the finite storage of tapes/CDs/etc no longer being a factor.  For example, if I have a two-disc album, I put all tracks into one folder and re-number them from 01-X, and don't bother with "Disc 1 - Track 01 and Disc 2 - Track 01).

My bottom line is that "it depends".  Some of my most-loved songs are Bonus Tracks and/or B-Sides:

James LaBrie - Elements of Persuasion - Understand
Bon Jovi - Starting All Over Again, Borderline, Love Is War, etc.
Dream Theater - Speak to Me, To Live Forever, Eve, Don't Look Past Me, Through Her Eyes (Long Titanic), etc.
Halestorm - Halestorm - Tell Me Where It Hurts

As for demos, these can be so amazing, like how different Livin' On A Prayer would have been (and probably a flop) had they not changed it, so these are cool also.  The demo of Always has JBJ bustin' balls with a key change that has him singing higher than he ever did before and hasn't since, it's amazing.

As for live tracks being bonus:  what's the problem?  I can understand the whole "just release the entire show" thing but if I want to listen to the Live at Budokan "Hollow Years" on its own then I will and I don't have to actually go through the entire show.  Sure, some of us are able to set aside the time for the whole thing but if I don't have time then I'm happy to have individual songs.

Or what if something amazing happens during that "one song" during that "one show", should they release the whole thing?  I'm looking at something like when the cops cut the power during The Spirit Carries On and MP and the crowd were singing without a PA, that's a special moment and having the one song out there is cool.

I also find it funny that we here seem to love "Making Of" Official Bootlegs which, to me, are virtually un-listenable, but some of us are anti-live/bonus tracks.

TL;DR - Not an easy answer to the question, I'm generally 100% on-board with them.

[DragonAttack]

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