High quality vinyl

Hugh?

It’s all a matter of pushing product and of dollars & cents. If the company thinks a recording might be attractive to  the audiophile/high-end crowd, they’ll manufacture these special Audiophile editions...and charge a bit more for them, too.

Wow, it's a profit deal, who would have thunk it.

Although risk/profit/loss certainly has something to do with it, I don't see that as the full picture as the independent labels seem to be faster at releasing vinyl than the major labels are. Case in point is the "4 men with beards" record label, which releases various artists on vinyl that were previously released on another label in a non-vinyl format.   

@edcyn

  If the company thinks a recording might be attractive to the audiophile/high-end crowd, they’ll manufacture these special Audiophile editions...and charge a bit more for them, too.
"And charge a bit more for them

Hove you seen the $109+ packages they now have for a single album? That's quite a bit more now. You are talking about prior to the vinyl resurgence. Now, the sky seems to be the limit. I'm sure glad I bought my vinyl prior to 2010