true.
the second true.
the labels want money and more money. Its totally no sense make a single with 7/8 types we already saw this in many bands. For me 4 types is the maximum to buy and i still think that its expensive. if have 4 types should have many extra contains and no only one version special song.
You can see that the old bands have only one type for singles or album in the begining these bands... when the era of internet arrived they change to make 4/5/6 types one single or one album, its good in little reasons and bad for many types for some reasons that already said here: I will say some.
1. the art of single/album in your totality is great to fans.
2. many types is really expensive (all together)
3. Sometimes u need pay tax to customs + shipping (laws of each country)
4. One single with one song or two that have others 32619613 fucking types with the same song but with differents versions. (This can happen one time only, more its so mercenary)
5. band that have many releases with many types cds... looks mean that the label need money and more money and them can broken the band if dont sell all.
I dont know what the labels think about... but why the fucking way of sell only in japan and forget that they can get more fame outside japan and restrict releases to digital copies in amazon or itunes. Doing this way and knowing that the ilegal download will happen because this, its stupidity. looks they want kill streaming and digital cds like @inartistic said.