The short answer: legal and artistic reasons. Many of these masters were never meant for public consumption. Some feature backing musicians who would need re-negotiated royalties. Others, Joel himself reportedly felt were "incomplete thoughts." In a 2006 interview promoting My Lives , he noted, "Some songs are B-sides for a reason. They’re not bad—they’re just not finished stories."

For decades, Collected Additional Masters existed primarily as a reference tape inside CBS Records (now Sony Music). In the late 1980s and early 1990s, when labels began preparing for the CD reissue boom, producers needed to inventory every usable master. This collection—sometimes unofficially circulated among archivists—contained the raw material for later box sets like My Lives (2005) and The Complete Albums Collection (2011).

This isn't a commercial album you’ll find on Spotify or in a record store bargain bin. Instead, Collected Additional Masters is a title that refers to a specific internal or limited-issue compilation—often part of a legal, licensing, or box-set preparatory process—featuring non-album tracks, B-sides, single edits, and rare live recordings that represent the "deeper than deep cuts" of Joel’s career.

While primarily a digital release or a box-set exclusive, it was remastered in 24-bit audio for the 2011 Legacy Edition series . Comprehensive Tracklist Analysis

What makes this compilation so prized among Joel fanatics is its raw, unpolished nature. Unlike the glossy production of An Innocent Man , these masters capture Joel in transitional moments: studio outtakes from Turnstiles , piano-and-vocal demos for songs later given to other artists, and even a forgotten jingle for a New York radio station.

For now, fans must hunt down vinyl singles, bootlegs, or the My Lives box set to hear these treasures. But perhaps one day, Sony will open the vaults fully. Until then, Collected Additional Masters remains the album that wasn’t—but probably should be.