wilting daisy

Your comment is reflective of the bias people have I am talking about. Similar to a placebo or the fake luxury shoes, people are not aware of their impressions and preferences. In your example someone can take a sugar pill and say "The pill made my headache go away, there is nothing to it." But of course this is a psychological effect and not reality. That's also why I mentioned the controlled study. Human bias is very real and has scientific backing. 

i've been saying for a while now that if guns and roses were a leaked track it would be a fan-favorite  

Huh. Never was much of a fan of TNBAR lfl version truly I think she made it better with NFR and the only thing that made the demo/lust version stood out would only be the outro which she removed… to me- that’s only it
the rest of it- norman’s tnbar stood out a lot to me at least

I think part of it, too, is nostalgia. We get leaks that are usually from an era, or many, prior--and since Lana's sound has changed tremendously through the eras--it takes people back to that time in her career and that time in their life. I think "Melancholia" benefitted from the nostalgia of the UV era immensely, bc it is quite a rough and slightly awkward song. 
 
That said, I agree that false "scarcity" or this idea of "exclusivity" around leaks is what drives the fascination. Look at "Riverside". I'm sure if UFB gets released in 7 years, no one will really bat an eye then either. And if "Candy Necklace" had been the outtake instead, we'd all be begging for that song. 

I didn't know what to name the thread but recently online on YouTube and IG I have noticed what I call 'Unreleased Syndrome'. It is similar to the placebo effect or other behaviors that examine people reacting to false information. 
 
My first example would be Architecture. When it leaked the reception from fans online was very positive and had people looking forward to the album. Now that it is released in its final format, fans say they like the unreleased version better. 
 
Another example is the Venice Bitch demo she released. I have noticed the same attitude toward the demo version being better than final. A lot of times I read on YouTube and here "this should've replaced the released version." When Black Beauty was released I remember many fans expressing their disappointment with the released version. 
 
So now at this point, I think a lot of the sentiment toward unreleased music being "better" is because of what I'm calling Unreleased Syndrome. Essentially because fans see that a song is unreleased, they become under the impression any variant of the song afterward is inferior. In reality the released version is better or would've been actually more liked among fans if she kept it unreleased in favor of the released version. 
 
A contemporary example is this prank. Basically the prank had low quality shoes masked as high end, designer shoes. Because people assigned a certain quality to the items they can be heard calling the shoes "high quality" when in reality they were from Payless. Below is the video.
 
 
The funny thing about this experiment is that the opposite placements would have had the same effect. If people walked into a designer store masked as a off-brand store, they would probably not notice the higher quality of the designer garments. Similarly fans can dismiss (mistake) the high quality released music for lower quality music as they can hear the unreleased versions. 
 
I would be interested for there to be some kind of study where 100 Lana fans listened to two versions of a song (unreleased then released) and picked which one they liked better versus 100 Lana non-fans. I honestly believe the non-fan group would choose the released versions each time, or it would be 50/50, because they are unbiased.
 
I think there are so many factors as to why this happens. I think the driving factor is the human instinct to go "What if...?" in many situations when it is unreasonable. I think there is something else called Impression Bias where people are less likely to identify a positive choice when surrounded by other negative choices. But maybe some users here can better explain some of the elements at play. This is not exclusive to Lana fans... I think it very common in a lot of media whether it be film, video games or other musicians. 
 
Have you ever suffered from Unreleased Syndrome? What do you think on this phenomenon? 
 
Wikipedia article detailing Soviet nostalgia linked below. I was reminded of Surf Noir's comment about recency bias. It's worth a read in the context of this conversation. 
 
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nostalgia_for_the_Soviet_Union

candy necklace is one of her BEST, i hope he produces her next album  

out august 18 
lanallah on track 21
 
21) Life Lesson (feat. Lana Del Rey) - Jon Batiste & Lana Del Rey - 4:49
 

everyone keeps questioning why she's taking a picture of the cake if she's not gonna post it on social media but like maybe she wants to text/email it to someone or maybe she just wants the memory on her phone or maybe she gets pictures printed for physical photo albums or to frame. like i take hundreds of pictures but i don't post any on social media.

I’m glad someone else pointed this out. I also thought she was trying to make a joke when she said it. 

I don’t think it was the hair, I think she pulled that out as a way to laugh it off.. I don’t think she realised how much it would bomb 

That's very sad actually

That just made me think like, maybe NFR is so loved by people because her songwriting kind of hit a sweet spot....still quintessential Lana style, but matured and refined a lot, the production also reflected that.
 
Truly a once in a lifetime record.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Ctu1Eu0OfWS/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
 
What do you guys think of how famous Lana is becoming? The fact she has more listeners than Beyonce who has a lot of radio songs and a lot of years in the industry is very impressive. Yet she has stayed very away from mainstream music, it is really impressive. 

talent won

they were released as bonus tracks. as in extra. as in not apart of the proper album. is this a new concept for you people? standard editions of albums are complete. bonus tracks are just extra songs that didn't make the cut that are released to boost sales.

they were released as bonus tracks. as in extra. as in not apart of the proper album. is this a new concept for you people? standard editions of albums are complete. bonus tracks are just extra songs that didn't make the cut that are released to boost sales.

are we positive not all who wander are lost is from the nfr sessions? bc lyrically it sounds like she wrote it after nfr. she mentions the midwest and a christian man which both seem to reference her relationship with sean which didn't start til after norman was released. is there an early demo with completely different lyrics in the verses? i feel like that would be the only way it would be possible for it to be from the nfr sessions unless she's clairvoyant 

they were released as bonus tracks. as in extra. as in not apart of the proper album. is this a new concept for you people? standard editions of albums are complete. bonus tracks are just extra songs that didn't make the cut that are released to boost sales.

Deluxe editions are basically the modern version of bsides on cd singles and are an incentive for the fans to buy more copies of the album. 

deluxe tracks don't count. even lana said her albums end with the last standard track

aka, btd & uv say hi

are we positive not all who wander are lost is from the nfr sessions? bc lyrically it sounds like she wrote it after nfr. she mentions the midwest and a christian man which both seem to reference her relationship with sean which didn't start til after norman was released. is there an early demo with completely different lyrics in the verses? i feel like that would be the only way it would be possible for it to be from the nfr sessions unless she's clairvoyant 

aka, btd & uv say hi

the idea/goal is what the album is. and we know her label wanted her to release deluxe versions of her albums to increase sales but she didn't like the idea of deluxe abums bc it messed with the albums concept. and she chose the songs bc she likes them, not bc she saw them as apart of the album. like deluxe tracks are still part of the eras even if thwy're not properly part of the albums. you can argue all day that she secretly sees them as apart of the albums but she said they're not so there's nothing more to it.

this 1000000%