I recently picked up a few CDs from the '90s that had hidden tracks buried long after the final song ended, forcing me to either sit through 20 minutes of silence or fast-forward through blank space to the start of that song. It reminded me how much I hated that "feature" when it appeared regularly during that decade. The worst culprit was one of my favorite bands, Marillion. On their 1997 This Strange Engine CD I was excited to see that the final track was 30 minutes long. Hoping for a prog epic, instead they included at least 15 minutes of silence followed by some laughter and then the disc ended.

So overall I hate when these are included. I feel the same way about Easter Eggs on DVDs. If you want to give us a hidden track, give it a separate track number.

Anyone else have an opinion on this?

I agree with this 100%.

Voted for "hate 'em", but that's not exactly right. I like extra tracks, I just want them listed on the packaging and indexed separately on the disc.

I could've given more options, but I suppose this was more about the songs hidden within another track rather than the concept of hidden tracks in general ("Her Majesty" comes to mind...imagine having to wait 20 minutes before hearing that). Don't make me work so hard to hear music I've paid for.

I don't mind them. If I like them, I can separate them in a sound editor. If I don't like them, I can just ignore them.

+1

Although the albums with 99 songs are a nuisance- 10 real songs, 1 true bonus track, 88 1-2 second tracks of silence- especially when the musical bonus track is hidden among the 89.

Rich, I completely agree, especially when you have to wait some ridiculous amount of time for the hidden track to begin. This was a novel idea that got old very fast.

The only thing worse than hidden tracks at the end of CD's were when they'd try to put them at the beginning of CDs, in the negative numbers. You had to very carefully "rewind" to the beginning of the track but not go too far, and that was on players that would even let you do this. Not every player would. This "feature" was used on an X-Files VA compilation and a mix CD by 2 Many DJ's, among others.

Glenn, I had forgotten about those songs hidden before the start of a CD. I think I have a Better Than Ezra title with one of those. I believe most ripping software can't locate those tracks (or the negative count-ups to other tracks) so unless you're playing the CD those moments are lost.

Lawrence, I think I have one or two of those discs with 99 tracks and I also find that annoying, but at least once you know which tracks contain music you can easily skip to them as opposed to the slower fast-forward option in a 30-minute track.

I agree. I'd take the end-of-CD hidden tracks over these monstrosities any day. I recall discovering at one point that none of my CD players would play these, and I had to download software on my computer that would separate the "negative portion" of the track from the "positive portion" and then burn a new CD with the track separated into two. A collosal pain in the butt.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

I ran into that once; I think it was on Sarah Masen's 3rd cd. It was a good song too. So I ripped the cd (which i had purchased) & burned with track #00 as #01 to solve the problem.

Hate 'em. Unless you are in the know somehow (easier today than back in the 90s), if it wasn't listed on the tracks it's entirely possible you never even become aware of them. Worse was hidden tracks on a cassette. Nine Inch Nails Broken came with a blank second side of the tape, except the last 5 minutes of it, which had 2 songs on it. I never even knew until I reversed accidentally once!

Nice to see my pet peeve is shared by others. I agree with Jeff that in the internet age it's easier to find out this kind of information, it's still annoying to me whenever I encounter it. I'm sure each artist thought they were being very clever, but annoying your fans shouldn't be part of your agenda.

As I mentioned above, I feel just as strongly about Easter Eggs on DVDs. Why are you making me work so hard to find this footage? It seems like something they do simply because they can.

I count seven hidden tracks in my iTunes (that I've of course separated and saved as their own files); only one of those could be considered an actual song. I don't have as many CDs as others in this forum so I don't know how common hidden tracks are. Are they very common?

Paulo, I think they were more prevalent in the '90s but I don't have any data to back that up. It's just a hunch based on my own collection.

How many would you say there are, rich? At a guess?

Mixed feelings--I was happy to upgrade from the import version of Nirvana's "In Utero" which had something like a half-hour of silence between the final song and the bonus track, but most of the time I don't mind as much. It's one of those "what did the artist intend" things--Frankly, I don't need to hear the "Sgt. Pepper Inner Groove" every time I play "A Day In The Life", but that's how the Fab Four wanted it, I guess. ("Her Majesty" is sort of a hidden track.)

One that did kind of bother me was the recent 2-disc deluxe edition of "The Who Sell Out", which had a couple of hidden tracks (an instrumental mix of "Armenia City In The Sky" and the Keith Moon "Great Shakes" ad) hidden at the end of Disc 2--it seemed frivolous for a title that was seemingly intended to be at least somewhat definitive, At the same time, I'd still like to see a version of "Sell Out" released which indexes ALL of the interstitial music and commercials separately.

As I recall, an Amy Grant Christmas CD did this, the whole hidden track at the beginning thing. I think that I vaguely remember that it might have been a Target exclusive, but I'm not sure about that.

They Might Be Giants had a Track 0 style hidden track in their Factory Showroom album. Comfortingly, it was not any good.

Along with this is "Easter Eggs" on dvd's. The only way I know how to find them is search the internet for instructions. There are something like 4 or 5 very well hidden gems on the Best Of Bowie dvd, & they're not minor things; but very major full length video clips & performance.

There are so many in so many different places on that Bowie set that I printed out the instructions & store them in the dvd case!

I'm OK with unlisted tracks, as long as there isn't much of a gap, and they have their own track number.

Train In Vain on London Calling, or Horse on Throwing Copper are good examples.

On Sophie Ellis-Bextor's second album, there was a 15 minute gap to fast-forward through on the last track to hear her bossa nova cover of "Let's Get Physical."

The 2 i mostly remember at the end is Alanis Morissette's first (real) album; there is a superior version of You Oughta Know about 15 seconds after the end; & Nirvana's Nevermind had a several minute gap before the last track if i remember right.

Back in the day, on the old ICE board, we used to alert each other to hidden tracks. It was kind of fun and rewarding. In retrospect, the whole idea just seems dumb and annoying.