I hope it will soon also appear after the film in the U.S., the soundtrack already here in Germany can be bought!
Interestingly, when you go to the Up MP3 Download page on Amazon now
(at least as of this writing):
amazon.com/Up/dp/B002A4ZN1A/ … 494&sr=8-3
It says “Also available in CD Format.”
But when you click on the “CD Format” link, it takes you to the wrong page:
(A gospel choir CD)
But I wonder if the fact that it now says “Also available in CD Format” (even if it links to the wrong one) is a good sign, or just a mistake…
How to voice my utmost disappointment in Disney and Pixar?
I’m not against digital music at all, I have a nice collection of mp3s and what not but why the hell could that decision be made? Since Finding Nemo Pixar soundtracks have been critically successful and I doubt they ever lose money for releasing those CDs. Poor Giacchino, how can they do that to his face, coming off a Grammy-winning and Oscar-nominating score for their studios? I doubt that is his preference, it’s not a Cloverfield suite.
Godawful situation, I’m not one who can scour bootlegs or FYC releases but now very tempted to find an illegal copy. Stupid, stupid Disney. 
Yes, the horrible rumour is true guys: Michael Giacchino on Composing Up + No Physical CD
Well… bum. I’m no audiophile, but apparently the CD versions of soundtracks are of higher sound quality than the MP3-only release that Up will be getting. Like I said, there’s just something special about owning a physical copy with the pamphlet with the studio musicians’ names, Pixar in-jokes, thank-yous, pictures… Just a shame that one of the hottest composers of the moment, Michael Giacchino, doesn’t get his worked released “properly”. I would like to know how he feels about this decision. Like markjochems said, digital-only releases are the way of the future, but why does so much Disney crapola like High School Musical get slight variations/extended soundtracks of their music released on CDs, yet a Pixar soundtrack doesn’t? It’s just all about the $$$. Maybe Amazon did mess up with the link to the physical CD.
What incentive is there to buying the MP3s rather than downloading them of of Rapidshare? None. No difference. I could either purchase them legally from Amazon or iTunes, or download them illegally for free. But if I was given the choice to either download it for free (steal) or buy the soundtrack, I’d buy the soundtrack because of the fact that I really own the soundtrack and have the pamphlet and notes to look at.
So yeah, that news is a bit of a kick in the knickers. 
It is really sad to hear that they aren’t releasing a physical CD. I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that they changed some music at the last minute.
Two cues and a whole soundtrack gets ripped? That makes no sense. Last minute changes happen all the time. They don’t always need to release the CD before the film, they can release it when the music is all done.
Only issue I can think of is $$$. Maybe Pixar soundtracks don’t make much money, or any money, well, obviously, can’t be as much as those HSM CDs.
Stupid Disney.
Ok, I don’t like the idea of not having the soundtrack on CD, but whatever Disney’s reasons are, why are they releasing the Pixar Greatest hits on CD? Is that going to make THAT much more money than the Up soundtrack?? The investment in the physical CD can’t be that much.
I couldn’t believe it when I saw it – if it’s in fact true that there will be no physical CD soundtrack issued for “UP.” (I wonder if the end credits of the film will still say “Soundtrack available from Walt Disney Records”) Speaking for myself (not representing anyone), I have to say, this was an absolutely terrible business decision (let alone just a bad one for ill will from fans). Without having seen the numbers (units sold of previous Pixar soundtracks), I’m still willing to bet they were a lot higher than soundtracks sold of many other Disney films that have normal, physical CDs released (take your pick of any live-action Disney movie that’s come out). Another company like Varese Sarabande can make a profit by releasing soundtracks to movies that are often only niche market ones – and Pixar’s movies are among the highest grossing in the entire world.
If it was someone’s desire to “test the waters” for a digital-only release, boy did they pick the wrong movie to test it out on. It’s one thing if your movie is called “The Knights of New Jersey” or something like this. It’s easy for anyone to do a search and find it online. But when your movie is entitled simply “Up”, try to find that online anywhere, wading through 4,610,000,000 other entires for the word “Up.” Having only a one-word title such as “Up” makes it close to impossible for a casual movie goer who might, on a whim, just want to pick up the soundtrack, to find. While typing “Up” into google will bring up the movie, try typing “Up soundtrack” into google and you’ll see what I mean. Nothing comes up related to buying it (even in digital form, even though it’s been on Amazon for a while now). What comes up time and time again is the “Step Up Soundtrack” or the “Light it Up” soundtrack. A hardcore fan might type in “Giacchino, up, soundtrack”… but except for hardcore fans, how many average people who might want to buy a copy of the soundtrack, know the composer’s name of a particluar film? If you just saw the new “Terminator” movie, or for instance, “Dance Flick”, do you know who the composer was? 99% of you won’t (that’s normal). Now if your movie title is “Dance Flick” or “Terminator” it’s easy to do a search. If your movie is called only “Up” it is close to impossible for the average person to find. If you want to test the waters on a digital-only release, don’t do it on a title that’'s impossible to search because it’s nothing more than a common English word, and at best brings up other soundtracks containing the word instead – let alone for a film that will be as popular as this will be. Try it on one of your many live-action films first. It makes absoultely no business sense to do it for this particular title, from any point of view I can see. It’s almost like Disney doesn’t seem that interested in earning money off of the film.
This brings up one last point: I wonder if anyone at Pixar actually knows that there will be no physical CD of this released. I’m willing to bet no one does at the moment. Pixar and Disney is the left hand and right hand, and often the left hand does not have any idea what the right hand is doing. I’m the wrong person for this, but for those of you here on Pixar Planet who have contacts at Pixar (family, friends, contacts in Pixar publicity, etc – I know there are at least a few of you), it’d be interesting if you could let them know this and get their thoughts. The idea of a petition is a good one, and I don’t mean to shoot it down, but chances are, someone from Pixar wondering why there’s no CD of their movie will hold a lot more weight than a petition signed by fans.
Well, the Pixarians read Upcoming Pixar so if they didn’t know before, then they’d know now. Because of John Lasseter’s big role with Disney, I have a feeling they’d have known beforehand about this news for a while. Maybe they thought that Up would be the big drawcard into getting fans into downloading music instead of buying a physical soundtrack? But like you said, miafka, it’s so darn hard to find the Up MP3 download page. Like what happened with me, people will look for the music in the soundtrack section of Amazon.com, and not find a thing, or find the “Surf’s Up” soundtrack instead, Disney’s competitor. I just find this experiment disrespectful, probably because music is so close to me, and just as, if not more so, offensive when the wreck the soundtrack’s release than the DVD release of a Pixar film…
The trouble, and one of the most frustrating things about being a Pixar fan sometimes, is that despite the nice, close-knit community we have, there just aren’t the numbers to create huge waves in grabbing the attention of Pixar or Disney when they make a decision that we are not happy with. If Star Trek was delayed until September in Australia and the fans were unhappy with staggered release dates, would whoever is distributing the film sit up and take notice? You better believe it. If the same thing happened with Star Wars, would there be a big outcry? Of course, because fanbases like that have the numbers that grab attention. If those fans aren’t happy, they might boycott, which means less income, which is the only real way to grab attention.
I’m still not buying that excuse that the soundtracks weren’t profitable. Like I said, it’s Michael Giacchino, who has just released a film and soundtrack for one of the most popular and well-received movies of 2009, with one of the biggest fanbases in the world, and he has composed music for a Pixar film, of which has the best scores in terms of excellence in consistency with every release. Unfortunately, the Billboard website won’t let me see the statistics of movie soundtracks unless I pay monies, but on the Amazon website the Star Trek soundtrack is the second best selling OST released in the past 30 days. Why didn’t Disney ride off of that success? Not that the Up soundtrack would have needed it. It’s just a way to cut out the costs of producing and shipping physical cases, but still charging the same price, and of lesser audio quality too. Why not just press less number of CDs this time 'round?
I pretty much share the same sentiments as the other posters on this board.
This is the worst soundtrack to start an ‘all-digital release only.’ If it was for something popular or with more prominence like a live-action blockbuster, then the loss in sales would not be as detrimental as say a ‘niche’ animated film like Up.
I simply don’t understand the rationale. Going all-digital would be missing out on a huge slice of market segment featuring the techno-illiterate, those who don’t own computers or have Internet, and audiophiles who would rather own a higher-quality physical copy.
Not to mention countries which don’t have an online branch of the iTunes store like Singapore (ironically, my ‘less-developed’ home country Malaysia has iTunes 
) would be missing out!
Bad move, Disney. Wonder if Pixar had a say in this?
Like just about everyone else, I think this is a horribly bad idea.
They picked the wrong “CD” for this experiment, not to mention we will most likely be stuck with lossy MP3/AAC/whatever files.
And whatever the marketing claims, they don’t give you the same quality and listening experience as a CD, or (here’s an idea for you, Disney!) lossless downloads in FLAC or ALAC format.
I am by no means a die hard audiophile, but I think great music deserves to be treated with respect and not just shoved down the MP3 garbage-chute.
I’m not too worried that there’s not going to be a physical CD; I stopped buying CD’s a couple years ago when i discovered iTunes music store, it saves all of that CD clutter that accumulates, anyway, and now iTunes is DRM-free.
My biggest worry is that it’s not yet on iTunes yet! They usually have a page for it by now. I prefer iTunes to Amazon MP3 store because I have a wealth of iTunes gift cards.
The score is beautiful and I think it fits the film well (I saw Up at an advanced screening the other day), but oddly enough, the score did not excite me as much as Michael GIacchino’s other Pixar efforts have. Nonetheless, I want it now!!!
Maybe Disney will throw us a bone and give it away as a Disney Rewards member gift or have it come with the Blu-Ray/DVD
I’m trying to get an official comment from Pixar on this matter but have yet to receive a response.
While I would personally not buy the physical CD as I prefer digital purchases, I understand there is a market for those who want something to hold in their hands, with a lovely case and whatnot, plus you get the music in a lossless format, which isn’t currently offered digitally.
I would love if we could get some sort of statement from Disney, or even better, Pixar.
totoro - Nice signature. You should make it link to the petition.
There is no petition.
I think there have to be a gazillion online petitions around and almost none of them ever have any effect.
But you can of course snail-/e-mail Disney, or ask your local record store(s) about the soundtrack to show there’s demand for true CD quality.
Yeh: petitiononline.com/CDFORUP/petition.html
Ok, I might email Disney and Pixar. Maybe with my email address they’ll take notice, but I encourage everyone else to, as well.
Ok, link added.
how can i get the soundtrack im in the uk!!!
Well, I bit the bullet and bought the digital download from Amazon.com. I like what I’m hearing so far. One thing that I did notice was that some songs are polar opposites of one another. This is going to be an annoying movie to watch on TV because I’m gonna have to turn up and down the volume constantly. Track 14 is very loud and busy while track 15 is so quiet I thought I had a bad MP3 until I turned the volume up. I like the overlying theme of the soundtrack, though. The little ditty that is heard in track 3 is repeated throughout the rest of it. I can’t wait to hear this in the theater this Friday!