Went to Newbury Comics to peruse the racks and I came across four Sony releases, Greatest Hits/Best Of albums from Springsteen, Journey, Santana & Earth, Wind & Fire in "eco-friendly" cardboard packages. They weren't like LP sleeve packaging, but it was disconcerting.

The Springsteen packaging had a blurb on the back that directs the buyer to a website to download artwork and liner notes. They also have a little green sticker on the shrinkwrap that says something like "First they went gold, now they've gone green!"

I saw a copy of Elvis's "Number One" CD at Walmart with the same sticker.

I'm seriously thinking of getting some kind of engineering degree so that I can figure out how to get the CDs out of some of these packages. How much lower and cheaper can the music industry go with these things? (Rhetorical question)

Don't even put that question out there rhetorically, Larry! You'll give them ideas!

So has everyone seen the artist "credit card" download albums?

I've seen Springsteens 'Magic', a Santana release and a few more.
The feature the album cuts, downloadable artwork and extras like
bonus tracls/video.

I do all the artwork for my bands cd's from design to duplication
and I'd say about 85% of our expense is tied up in the actual
printing so I definitely see the upside to this. But I do go to the
trouble of producing what I feel is art and something that adds to
the listening experience. I just try to make something that I'd want
to open up and get lost in for a while. Plus I love seeing them all lined
up before we take 'em to shows & stores!

The other side of that coin is that..... I do go to the trouble/expense of
including stickers and a resealable sleeve and many times it's just
wadded up and tossed aside. So why bother?

Because I Care. I remember how I looked forward to what may lurk inside.
So we'll continue to keep putting our cd's out with beautiful packaging but
we're also getting ready to place all of our material up as individual tracks
for dowload.

"Hey look - I found my cd. It was behind my BlockBuster card!"

peace,
joebase


feel free to check out our tunes at one of the sights below
totally free - nothing to buy

http://www.myspace.com/shavedfish
http://www.reverbnation.com/shavedfish

I saw even more of these Sony CDs today at Borders. Very sad.

I've seen the CDs with the El Cheapo packaging as well. Too bad the actual retail prices aren't commensurate.

If they were $2.99, then maybe I could see it, yeah.

I saw several of these in the local Hastings store the other night. I agree, the packaging was extremely flimsy, and doesn't look like it would hold up well.

I've made CDRs with better "packaging." I hate to admit this, but even a digipak is better than this.

http://www.kissonline.com/index_newlayout.php#story-3

KISS GOES GREEN AT WAL-MART
WITH VERY BEST OF KISS CD

04/05/2008 KISSONLINE.com


KISS CD PART OF "EARTH MONTH"

As part of Wal-Mart’s “Earth Month” campaign for April, the company is promoting more than 120 CDs and DVDs, including The Very Best of KISS.

The eco-friendly package is 100% recyclable and biodegradable. It also includes a blow in card containing seeds for planting and allows you to get three free MP3 downloads from a selection of 30 titles.

KISS + eco-friendly package + Wal-Mart =

On a semi-related note--the single-disc DVD of "There Will Be Blood" released this week appears to be simply shrinkwrapped between two halves of a folded piece of cardboard. On the plus side, the cardboard features a photograph of Daniel Day-Lewis, suitable for framing. There is also a two-disc version, which I was thinking about getting, which looked to be in a slightly sturdier box, although I decided to get home and get on the web and see what was up with this crapass packaging apparently crossing over into DVD's before I started throwing away $$$.

I would like to thank Neil Young for helping this trend to continue in the realm of box sets with his current Archives release.

What I want to know is: how many longboxes could have been manufactured using all of this cardboard packaging?

Target's joined the badwagon (sp intentional...)

Longboxes! Oh geez!!!!

I used to save those for some dumb reason. Went in the trash anyway after a while.

Alot of the CDs that I have got from the library lately have had only a 1 page gatefold for the booklet. These are new releases, not reissues, that have come out in 2007 or later. It seemed like when CDs first came out, the booklets were crappily made. Then, they put more thought into them, and now it seems to me that the pendulum has swung back to not giving a hoot about them.

I miss the days of lavishy produced LP packages. Yes' Fragile/Yessongs, and Tull's Thick As A Brick, I'm thinking of you.

DW

When I first started buying CDs, I generally got rid of their LP counterparts. But for some reason, I held onto Yessongs. That double gatefold sleeve could never be replicated with any justice in a CD booklet.

"Gone Green" is corporate-ese for "We're making it cheaper so we can put more GREEN in our pocketbooks."