Why are soundtracks bundled with bluerays so much now?

[JOSHUA]

Why are soundtracks bundled with bluerays so much now?
Recently i've been noticing an increase in japanese anime soundtracks being treated as "extras" in Blueray bundles. This usually leads to some pretty high prices ranging from 86 to as high as 380 dollars. As a person who loves buying music this is very discouraging considering when all i want most of the time is the soundtrack and NOT the mere 4 episodes rendered in blueray quality

I'm not quite up to speed on how the Japanese music market is doing but i'd be willing to assume that maybe it isn't profitable to release CD's on their own anymore? That's my guess but i can't be sure on that. Also if i may ask another question could someone tell me if the artist receives more support if people buy the animation CD or buy the bundled blueray packs with the CD included as an "extra"? If so how much usually? Sources would be appreciated!

Thank you for your time
Here are some examples

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=ANZX-

6607

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=ANZX-

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=ANZX-3855

I've looked every place i could but the only way to get the Original soundtracks for these shows is to buy the blueray bundles which can leave your wallet VERY empty.

[ringking]

I would also like a few examples, and the only anime I can recall them doing this for in recent memory was Madoka Magica. Unless were talking Japanese BD's here, in which case I was always under the impression that it was very common for soundtrack to come with first press editions of anime BD's considering that every Japanese BD or game I have ever bought has come with one (and anime costs a ton in Japan anyways. Losing the CD wont make it all that much cheaper).

As for what the artist gets, I would say that they don't get any more or less regardless of how you come to own the soundtrack. Either the song will have been purchased outright so they dont receive anything from sales, or what they receive will be a fixed royalty payment per sale.

But its worth pointing out that every CD you get in BD's can be had individually without buying the BD. Many songs are available on Japanese Itunes, and the CD's can easily be ordered off Amazon.jp or CDJapan (obviously, it was never profitable to release anime soundtracks outside Japan).

[AVDADDY]

Example?

[evenstar86]

You're right. Recently there has been an increase of anime OSTs being bundled together with Blu-ray and limited edition DVD releases.

To be honest, I think they do it to increase the sales of the DVD & Blu-rays.

DVD and Blu-ray sales are the best indicators of how well an anime show does (profit-wise). Especially those late night anime that don't rely too much on merchandise.

It's not that there aren't any anime soundtracks that are sold by itself, there are. But it seems doing it this way works well to increase sales + if the releases sell well, the composer would still get a share of the profit (anime movie OSTs are almost always released standalone... almost).

Sword Art Online, for example, have been consistently selling well for both Blu-rays and DVDs.
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2013-02-05/japan-animation-blu-ray-disc-ranking-january-28-february-3

I think it's mostly to do with the people who produces the anime. If for marketing purposes, they decide that it would be much more profitable to get the OST bundled, then they'll do so. Different animation studio might choose to not bundle it.

It's sad, because I would really love to own some of those OST albums too.