Publication:
MaximumRockNRoll

Author:
Felix Von Havoc

MRR #237- Cds and CD packaging
Just a short column this month as I’m struggling to stay above water with moving and fixing up the new castle havoc.

Ok, this month I’m going to talk a little more about CDs, and specifically CD packaging. First, understand I am a vinyl purist to the end. I have thousands of LPs and 7”s and maybe 50 CDs. I have thought, and continue to think, the CD is a totally bogus format. However, I have been forced to recognize that millions of people disagree with me. Despite the efforts of myself and many others to save the vinyl, there is a pretty big demand for punk on CD. This comes from younger kids and metal fans who have been successfully brainwashed by the industry, and from foreign countries where vinyl culture never really developed (especially SE Asia). I’ve been working one day a week at my local punk record store for 8 years now, plus doing distro at shows for much longer. I’ve used this space to talk about CD pricing before but I’d like to point out some things I’ve noticed about CD packaging.

First, people will pay whatever for CDs in plastic jewel cases. People think nothing of dropping 15$ or more for a CD, provided it’s in a plastic jewel case. Once you take away that plastic case and get “creative” with the packaging things get dicey. When people package CDs in 7” or LP sleeves, plastic envelopes, and other strange packages they automatically move out of the “convenience” and “consumer” column into the “curio” column. Let’s remember this, CDs became popular because they are supposed to be convenient, they are small, light, easy to transport and ship, and a lot of people put CD players in their cars so they can listen to music at home or in the car on the same format. One of the biggest criticisms of CDs when they took over was that there was no room for artwork. People continually try to challenge this trend by packaging CDs in “creative” ways to add more artwork and information. GIVE IT UP! People who buy CDs for the most part don’t care about this sort of stuff. They want a uniform item in a plastic box. I know from working at the record store that most consumers turn up their nose at CDs packaging in little plastic sleeves (like mini 7”s), CD-Rs (which are supposedly super DIY) and especially CDs packaged as 7”s or LPs. I for one don’t order funny packaged CDs anymore because they almost never sell.

If you are a store or distro and you get a box of CDs packaged as 7”s what do you do with them. If you put them in stock with the 7”s you will be bombarded with questions like “why does this 7” cost so much” and no matter how big you write on it “THIS IS A CD” people will try to buy it and then want to give it back when they find out it’s not a 7”. The same is true of CDs packaged as LPs. The people who are looking for CDS will mostly never see it because they are over the CD section clicking through row after row of comfortingly uniform plastic jewel cases. These are hard to display at shows and in stores, and usually wind up in some sort of “special section” that never gets looked at. At Extreme Noise we’ve tried every conceivable scheme to display and sell unusually packaged CDs and none of them work satisfactorily. Most of the funny packaged CDS just sit unsold year after year. Not only does this not get band’s music heard, it also hurts the stores and distros who get stuck with this stuff. Also, I think this stuff gets listened to less at home. People have to stick it in some special spot in their collection, and that probably means it doesn’t get pulled out and played very often.

Case study #1 Aus Rotten. I love Aus Rotten. From the first time I saw this band back in 93 I was hooked. I thought here was the Conflict of the 90’s. This band had the chops and the message. I thought if ever there was a chance for a political punk band to get really big and make a difference in our time this was the band. I put out a 7” for them and then they moved on to Tribal War Records. All their records sold well, but they insisted on packaging their CDs in LP sleeves. This was done to get more political information, artwork, and a poster to the kids that came with the LP. However, I know for a fact that sales of this format were very weak, distros and retailers have a tough time with CDs in LP sleeves and the only way to really get rid of these is by mail order. At the same time punk bands with much less of a message such as the Casualties and Blanks were making great inroads into the “mall punk” scene. These young kids had probably never even seen a record player. I feel like an opportunity was missed to bring music and anti authoritarian politics to a lot of kids who opted for a less challenging fashion punk statement instead. In my opinion, Aus Rotten suffered from a catch 22 here. In an attempt to make their message more up front and accessible by putting tons of info in their CD packaging, they then made it inaccessible to the people they were probably trying to reach.

Case study #2 Iron Sausage. Iron Sausage are a great grind core band from Australia. They put out a CD on Chaotic Thoughts records that came in a screen printed canvas sack with a booklet. I’m sure the band thought they were being super creative and giving the kids a real good package for their money. Instead they created a monster that is impossible to sell and display in any store or distro. I did a few big trades with Chaotic Thoughts about 4 years ago. I got 5 or 10 copies of each of the label’s releases. All the vinyl has been sold out for years, but I still have four copies of the Iron Sausage sitting unsold at the record store. Iron Sausage also got caught in the same catch 22 as Aus Rotten, they tried to do something cool, but it backfired. Also, probably most stores and distros won’t order their stuff in the future because they just remember Iron Sausage as a band that “didn’t sell”.

Case study #3 the exceptions The only exceptions I can think of are really nice CD box sets. “Clash on Broadway” for instance, will probably always sell. People seem to think that a Box Set is some sort of acceptable exception to their prejudice against funny packaged CDs. More DIY examples would be the Sin Dios CD/books, and the Shellac CD box. These have sold pretty well. Part of the reason I think is that you can set a box on the counter, or in a glass cabinet and it will catch the customer’s eye.

OK, every time I open a box of records or CDs I’ve traded and see some CDs packaged in 7” sleeves my heart sinks. I know no matter how good the music is, I’ll never get rid of these things. The only effective way to distro funny packaged CDs is through mail order, where the customer bases their selection objectively based on a written review. While this is “pure” music consumerism untainted by packaging or artwork, it’s only a small percentage of the market. I think as popular as mail order is in the punk scene, it’s still less than 20% of the records that are distributed. Most sell at stores and distros hand to hand. If you are a band or label, please take my advice, if you want to do cool packaging, put it out on vinyl. If you want to do CDs, stick with the plastic jewel case. It’s not just your own sales (I’m thinking some bands don’t care about sales, they just want to put it out) but it hurts the rest of the DIY movement. If you feel you have to put out something packaged funny like this, make sure you specify in your catalogs and trade lists “this CD is packaged like a 7” so people like me can be sure not to order it.

OK, before you write an angry letter attacking me, think a little about what you are defending. CDs are bogus to begin with. Some of us have come to accept them just like we have come to accept paying sales tax, stopping at red lights and wearing condoms, it’s not what you want to do, but everyone else is doing it so you better go along. Before you jump to the defense of your silly packaged CDs, ask yourself this, “why not put it out on vinyl?”

Publication Date:
January 1, 1984

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