Why is CD packaging so awful?

Question

I know this question could have gone into any (or all) of the various music categories (and maybe a few more besides) but this is where I feel comfortable. I wonder how many of classical music lovers deplore the way CDs are packaged. The CD jewel case must be one of the greatest aberrations to have been invented. It gets scuffed too easily, the plastic hinges break, the splines holding the CD in place snap and fold under, the retaining ridges holding the booklet in place cause little indentations along the booklet edge. And the jewel case is wider than it needs to be across the spine, meaning that fanatical and obsessive collecters like me run out of shelf (and house) space too quickly. It's a design disaster. And yet it is still with us after 20 years!

The 'super' CD case is a little better but unnecessarily fiddly to use and will, no doubt, lead to more accidental damage to the jewel case than the old model.

I prefer the all-too-rare digipack format - a small gatefold format where the booklet can be inserted into a pocket safely and a plastic insert for holding the CD (the splines can still break, however!).

What do my fellow music lovers make of all this (apart from the fact that I like a good moan!)? Have any of you found any answers to this problem? Have any of you thought-up your own CD packaging?

I won't take all my CDs out of the jewel cases and place them in those horrible album thingies, before any of you suggest that.

Answer 1

I couldn't agree more. To those who say 'go over to mp3's, i-pods etc' there are some of us (like the questioner, I suspect) who like the physical ability to hold a CD, who like the info available in booklets. In fact, I'm such a luddite that I burn the mp3s I buy to CD. I've yet to find a reasonably priced mp3 player that works properly (I speak as a pensioner who can't lash out £220+ in one go for a super smart i-player, and whose Wharfedale mp3 player given as a present at Christmas has to go back as it stubbornly refuses to accept any files from my computer). CDs do take up a great deal of space - but my 3000 odd CDs take far less room than the LP collection they replaced. And companies are realising that compact packaging for compact discs is sensible, The much praised Jos van Immerseel issue of the complete Beethoven symphonies and overtures comes in a box hardly bigger in plan than the standard CD case and takes up 3/4'' of shelf space (I just measured it!). Marriner's reissued complete Schubert's symphonies (yes, totally complete with numbers 7 & 10 for example, is in a similary sized box, and Barshai's complete Shostakovich takes up just 1/2'' more shelf space.



However, the single CD jewel case remains the bugbear. I understand (I think) why they are shrink wrapped, but what a faff getting the shrink wrapping off. And as some one who buys most my mail order they often arrive broken in one way or another time after time. The usual problem is with the splines which hold the CD in place. Why on earth have they not been replaced with the much less easily broken three way clip as used for DVDs?. I'm not worried about the indentations on booklet covers, but some do get too fat to be put back under without getting torn. One way around this is to break the lugs off the case. I recollect that there was so much adverse publicity about this when Hyperion began issuing its complete Schubert lieder set way back in the 1990s that they went over to boxing even single CDs. There's always the recycling option of course. Thise free cover discs that come month after month on Gramophone magazine are in cases which can be used to replace broken cases!

Answer 2

Those of us who have seen "Men in Black' ( that's about the whole planet, I guess) know the line where Tommy Lee Jones picks up this teeny music storage device and says "I guess I am going to have buy The White Album AGAIN!" In this house, there are 78s, vinyl LPs, 45s, cassettes, 8-tracks, CDs, LaserDiscs, mp3, and lotsa stuff on all kinds of formats on the computer, that seemed like a good idea at the time. I also hate CDs - I actually liked the ease and portability of cassettes, altho the sound was poor, and they stretched. LPs were great if only for the room on the cover - for text and ART - every time I look at the R. Crumb drawing on that Janis Joplin LP, I find something new. To bad that mp3s are so small and efficient - that leaves little room for visuals. My current mp3 players is a Creative Zen, which I got for its BIG screen, and its ability to handle *bookmarking* for free e-books (so I do not have to PAY thru AudioBooks.) When I upload a CD - there is the cover, and a nice scroll of the text I need - and I can edit it. Nothing is perfect - and sometimes OLD is good. Someone here asked 2 weeks ago about analyzing a score, and I sent them to the 1935 Weir scores published by Bonanza ( and later, Belwin). Can't argue with those - and holding that big book while listening is nice.



I went thru grad school having to listen to LPs. When I got a cassette player, I thought I had gone to heaven - I could record things ( in real time) and listen elsewhere. I first saw a CD in Harvard Square - THEN ( 1973?) it was $18 - an enormous sum.



So - upload your CDs, and stores the images you wish form the booklet and cover. Maybe a mini-laptop ( those ones with the 8-inch screen?) would work for you, with a big enough HD. Or check out the player I got - you can keep adding memory cards to it, so it is theoretically endless.

Answer 3

In 1997 I moved everything over to those "horrible album thingies". My only regret and it affected my jazz collection the most, was that the liner notes didn't always include the same information that was on the back of the CD (I didn't take apart the cases to get out the back panel).



At least you can take solace in the fact that the CDs days are numbered. How long do you think they still have? My money is on about 5 years before they become "special order" items.



Anyway my favorite variation of the CD package is well done cardboard sets, you've seem them I don't know what they're called. There have been so few done well though, the best examples in my collection are pop and jazz -John Coltrane box set "Heavy Weight Champion" and a Phish Box set "Hampton Comes Alive" (this one is a little messy, it's almost like a puzzle).



Have you seen those massive budget box sets from Brilliant Classics? (paper slips in a cardborad box). I would imagine those would get pretty messy over time.

Answer 4

I must say I sympathize with your complaint. I think cost is the issue. There is currently no real substitute for the venerable CD. I use my CDs as archive copies and actually use my computer and iPod for playing the music. I don't download music as a rule. The reason is simple... the quality many times is poor and it is too easy to lose (due to a technological malfunction). For many this is not a problem as their music has only transient value. Collectors and art music lovers are in a different situation. They want to purchase a CD once and once only.

There does not seem to be a permanent replacement media in the works, so it looks like CDs or cyberspace.

I think that not having anything tangible for your money rather devalues the investment.

Answer 5

I have over five thousand CDs including 3,000 classical. I wish the cases were thinner but I realize that there would be no room for booklets.



I had no choice but to move some of my recordings to albums.



I wish I could think of a better package but am at a loss at present to think of one. We could get rich if we did come up with something better.



The thing I dislike is the wrapping and the labels that they stick on the top. Both are hard to remove and open.

Answer 6

An eight track cassette tape. A gift card for a retailer not located in your area. A figurine that will sit on a shelf and collect dust for fifteen years. Any alcohol for a non-drinker. A pack of cigarettes for a non-smoker. Cloth handkerchiefs. Bell-bottomed blue jeans Shoes that are the wrong size (and possibly for the other gender, if you could arrange that). Some random part to any vehicle, for which you really need the rest of the vehicle for that to make sense. An old CPU from some computer that is hopelessly out of date. Seeds to plant since it is the middle of winter. A detailed road map of some other part of the world. Any piece of clothing that is the wrong size in the colors lime green, bright orange, or hot pink. A brassiere for a man. A jockstrap for a woman. Any health product that suggests one is getting old, such as ExLax, Geritol, etc. Have fun with it.

Answer 7

Getting the sellophane off without scratching the jewel case can be hell.........The CD's themselves die quite quickly compared to vinyl. Plus digital sound quality is inferior to analogue.....if we must have digital music can't we have AAD ?



Personally, I would rather buy a twenty year old LP (min) than a new CD



And now (in Britain) they are turning off FM radio in favour of DAB..They just don't care about fidelity !.





But to return to your question ( sorry about the rant) Even cassettes were better packaged



Luckily the bulk of my music is on vinyl and tape-reels (FM broadcasts!)





SOLUTION: Get out your reel-to reel tape recorder, tape the CD, then throw the wretched thing away

Answer 8

I ran out of room ages ago (and moved to often to make dragging everything everywhere practical) covers and booklets are in files and I have over 5000 CDs in those ugly CD books



much sympathy

Answer 9

Your right about the horrible design flaws in CD packaging but I think it's time you stopped treating your CD collection like baseball cards.



I too used to be fanatical about keeping my CD's cases and booklets in perfect unscathed condition. but since the advent of digital storage I don't care anymore. I have every CD, cassette and reel-to-reel I've ever owned on one 16Gb thumb drive that I can take wherever I go. problem solved.

Answer 10

Finally! Someone else hates CD packaging!

Answer 11

If you ask me CD's should go the way of the cassette. Darned if they aren't the easiest media ever invented to get damaged (scratched). I HATE them.



Let's go to small SD cards or something enclosed. The new usb/flash card reading receivers are great.



Die, CD's and DVD's... DIE!

Answer 12

i only buy CDs of bands that don't allow MP3 downloads, like The Beatles. I store all my music on my computer. CDs are a dying media

Answer 13

I kinda think...

that maybe you should invest in a an ipod or zune.

eliminate the need to have all those cases to begin with.

and..

maybe also, not worry so much. its a pretty small thing to get upset over.

Answer 14

cause they hav bad people

Answer 15

why are those "horrible album thingies" so horrible?



looks like you're too picky & stubborn for anything to be good enough for you.