What happened with the Original Trilogy OSTs?

Hey everyone, I’ve been searching for answers on this but so far haven’t been able to find anything concrete, so I came here to see if anyone has figured this out.

In around 2011, I bought all three original trilogy albums on iTunes and it’s been a few years since I played them. Recently, I went in to iTunes to play them and they’ve been replaced with fragmented parts of this new soundtrack release (different album art, missing tons of the best tracks, and none sound nearly as good as the OST tracks). So I went searching on Amazon and iTunes and I find that they’re no longer selling digital copies of the OSTs for the original trilogy, just these shoddy re-releases, like this: https://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Strikes-Original-Soundtrack/dp/B07CMLLW2F/ref=tmm_msc_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1585798514&sr=8-5

I’ve found if I want to get the original sound tracks, I have to buy either $60+ used CDs or $500+ vinyl copies. Is this really the case? Has anyone been able to find the full OSTs being sold in new CDs or digital?

Sony’s Star Wars soundtrack license expired and Disney only published the OSTs from when the movies were released, not the extended OSTs that were released in 1997.

StarkillerAG said:

You can always just listen to them on YouTube. There are plenty of people who have uploaded the soundtracks there.

Yeah I guess I could download the tracks off there too. I just don’t know what the audio quality is and if there’s a better place to download them.

ray_afraid said:

StarkillerAG said:

You can always just listen to them on YouTube. There are plenty of people who have uploaded the soundtracks there.

YouTube compresses the hell out of things & the files uploaded usually aren’t top quality in the first place. YouTube can be great for a quick listen, but Tapiture seems to be looking for high quality audio.

I really hate that companies can screw around with your digital purchases without a word being said. Once something is purchased, it should be yours.

Yeah I’ve learned through this to always buy CDs or vinyl or keep high quality files if I want to keep stuff. I’m really pissed off at Apple, I thought I owned the music when I bought it.

ray_afraid said:

I really hate that companies can screw around with your digital purchases without a word being said. Once something is purchased, it should be yours.

Welcome to Bizarro World, where all your base are belong to them.

If you can find it for a decent price just get the Arista Records boxed set. The Anthology. The tracks are not restored and Return of the Jedi sounds rather muddy, but it is better to me than any noise reduced release. To me the best sounding Star Wars is both the first issued CD double release, and the same for Empire or the original vinyl releases. The best sounding Original Return of the Jedi was the cut down release on CD. Though i have not listened to them in years.

I have to say though other than youtube i have not listened to the Disney remasters. They supposedly restored return of the jedi from the original recording materials. But it is still the same release with missing tracks from the 1980s just restored.