Universal champions "value of music" in deluxe CD push.

Universal is turning to its big guns such as Snow Patrol and the Kaiser Chiefs as it rolls out a series of deluxe versions of key new albums aimed at both fans and the gift-buying market.

A year after claiming two of the biggest-selling Q4 titles with deluxe editions of Amy Winehouse's Back To Black and Take That's Beautiful World, the major is undertaking its biggest push yet in this market by rolling out extended versions of around a dozen of its new albums.

The schedule kicked off a week ago with Polydor act James Morrison's Songs For You Truths For Me, which was yesterday (Sunday) expected to debut in the top three, while forthcoming albums that will be issued as both standard releases and in extended versions will include titles by The Killers, Katherine Jenkins, Razorlight and Stereophonics.

The rollout of the deluxe editions is a big priority for Universal chairman/CEO David Joseph, who is keen to boost the value of CD albums at retail after a lengthy period when prices and the perceived value of releases have continually fallen.

"It's a big initiative for us and it's an initiative that's been driven across our biggest releases," says Universal commercial director Brian Rose who is billing the extended formats as "value of music" releases.

"We normally do deluxe versions on selected titles 52 weeks of the year and these primarily target fan bases and have been a week-one phenomenon, but the key difference with these are there are two phases to it."

Rose says the first phase will occur around each album's initial release when the title will be issued in a standard format and as a value of music edition.