This year, to mark the tenth anniversary of their album ‘I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it’, The 1975 released a special-edition of the vinyl, which included an alternative cover, pink pressing, and 17 art cards – one for each track – built around the album’s signature neon sign imagery. The vinyl was a nice edition, but one could argue that it felt like a cash grab, especially at its cost of around £50. For some, the cost didn’t really justify what you were getting.
It felt like it was capitalising on people's nostalgia for the album's art direction. It wasn't really offering something new, and the edition could have done so much more. The pressing could have been more like other, better examples, such as The Kooks' 15th-anniversary edition of their album ‘Inside In / Inside Out’. This version of the record included the remastered album, along with 13 previously unreleased tracks featuring B-sides and demos, plus a booklet exploring the album's making.
Courteeners also have two great examples of anniversary releases that really honoured the records. To mark the tenth anniversary of ‘St. Jude’, the band produced a re-recorded, unplugged version of the album. It sounded unique in an acoustic setting and breathed new life into the record. Fast-forward a few years later to the album’s 15th anniversary, and the band released a double LP version of the record, with the remastered album alongside bonus tracks, B-sides and rare acoustic versions. Both are good examples of anniversary pressings that honour an album and give fans something new, without feeling too much like a cash grab. They offer fans an insight into the record’s evolution and creative process.
When looking at anniversary pressings that can have major positives and negatives, The Beatles are an obvious example – a band that has a large number of anniversary pressings and reissues in their extensive catalogue. Their 2017 50th anniversary of ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ is an outstanding example of how to revisit a classic. The six-disc Super Deluxe box set included four audio CDs, a Blu-ray and a DVD, alongside a 144-page book. It sounded so crisp and made the band feel just like new, giving fans a new, unheard perspective of the album. Critics loved the album, with Rolling Stone awarding it with five stars.
This started a trend for The Beatles, with expansive anniversary editions of ‘The Beatles’ – also known as "The White Album" – ‘Abbey Road’ and ‘Let It Be’ released in the following years. On one side of the argument, the large pressings feel like they are giving their fans something new, putting love and care into these versions of the records. On the other hand, the most expansive vinyl box sets can cost well over £100, putting them in a category where only wealthier fans can enjoy them. There are considerably cheaper single-LP and CD versions of the record, but there's nothing like the sound of hearing an album on vinyl.
Alongside large anniversaries, there has also been a rise in one to five-year anniversary pressings. For example, Billie Eilish’s ‘Hit Me Hard And Soft’ received a first-anniversary vinyl edition in 2025, just over a year after its original 2024 release. By that point, the album had already been issued in multiple vinyl variants. Before the album was released, Billie told Billboard, in an interview later reported by The Guardian, that excessive amounts of vinyl pressings were wasteful: “I can’t even express to you how wasteful it is”. With an album that already had so many pressings, releasing another only a year later feels wasteful.
When a vinyl pressing of an album gets branded with the words "limited edition", it gives fans more of an incentive to purchase that record over the fear of missing out, even if they've already got a copy of the original album. In some ways, it takes away the special connection you get from having one copy of an album rather than owning many copies.
In conclusion, the general feeling towards anniversary pressings is somewhat mixed. While they do seem to be geared towards fans, it's often in the hope that fans will buy them on impulse simply because it comes from their favourite artist. On the other hand, there are a plethora of reasons why they're a good idea, provided they're done right, honour the work and offer fans something worthwhile and genuinely new.