If Music Could Talk

In Steve Knopper's book on the decline of the music industry, he relates the two things that persuaded the record industry to adopt the cd. First, there was money to be made by having people buy their collection again (and rewrite artist contracts to account for that, of course to the industry's advantage due to the inflated ticket price for cd's). But more amusing was that the execs were head over heels with the tray opening and closing during demonstrations. It was space age, man.

My LPs have lasted better.

Dr. Medulla wrote:In Steve Knopper's book on the decline of the music industry, he relates the two things that persuaded the record industry to adopt the cd. First, there was money to be made by having people buy their collection again (and rewrite artist contracts to account for that, of course to the industry's advantage due to the inflated ticket price for cd's). But more amusing was that the execs were head over heels with the tray opening and closing during demonstrations. It was space age, man.

And for packaging companies to make a fortune too, I would imagine. Remember those wasteful long boxes they used to come in?

JennyB wrote:

Dr. Medulla wrote:In Steve Knopper's book on the decline of the music industry, he relates the two things that persuaded the record industry to adopt the cd. First, there was money to be made by having people buy their collection again (and rewrite artist contracts to account for that, of course to the industry's advantage due to the inflated ticket price for cd's). But more amusing was that the execs were head over heels with the tray opening and closing during demonstrations. It was space age, man.

And for packaging companies to make a fortune too, I would imagine. Remember those wasteful long boxes they used to come in?

That was a compromise made to get the record stores on board. All the racks they had were for displaying albums. Plop a cd in there and it sinks below eye level. Retailers were reluctant to have to invest in new racks on an unproven new form. But add an artificial heightener and your could fit three columns of cd's in one album space. Once public outcry about all that unnecessary cardboard, plus by then the cd had been confirmed by the public, the stores converted over to cd-specific racks. The goofy thing is that cd's in long boxes have collectible value now. There's a record store in Rochester, NY, called The House of Guitars that does (or did) have bins and bins of unsorted cd's still in long boxes at regular prices. A friend of mine would make regular expeditions hunting for particular discs that he'd researched as fetching a good price, which he'd then throw up on eBay. It ended up being a decent venture, paying for annual family vacations and the like. Weirdly, my recollection is that for the longest time, the most desirable long box cd was a solo album by Dennis DeYoung of Styx. The world is very confusing.

Dr. Medulla wrote:

JennyB wrote:

Dr. Medulla wrote:In Steve Knopper's book on the decline of the music industry, he relates the two things that persuaded the record industry to adopt the cd. First, there was money to be made by having people buy their collection again (and rewrite artist contracts to account for that, of course to the industry's advantage due to the inflated ticket price for cd's). But more amusing was that the execs were head over heels with the tray opening and closing during demonstrations. It was space age, man.

And for packaging companies to make a fortune too, I would imagine. Remember those wasteful long boxes they used to come in?

That was a compromise made to get the record stores on board. All the racks they had were for displaying albums. Plop a cd in there and it sinks below eye level. Retailers were reluctant to have to invest in new racks on an unproven new form. But add an artificial heightener and your could fit three columns of cd's in one album space. Once public outcry about all that unnecessary cardboard, plus by then the cd had been confirmed by the public, the stores converted over to cd-specific racks. The goofy thing is that cd's in long boxes have collectible value now. There's a record store in Rochester, NY, called The House of Guitars that does (or did) have bins and bins of unsorted cd's still in long boxes at regular prices. A friend of mine would make regular expeditions hunting for particular discs that he'd researched as fetching a good price, which he'd then throw up on eBay. It ended up being a decent venture, paying for annual family vacations and the like. Weirdly, my recollection is that for the longest time, the most desirable long box cd was a solo album by Dennis DeYoung of Styx. The world is very confusing.

VERY confusing.

That makes sense now that you explain it. I guess they couldn't be displayed like cassette tapes and they wanted a big splash like albums.

JennyB wrote:

Dr. Medulla wrote:

JennyB wrote:

Dr. Medulla wrote:In Steve Knopper's book on the decline of the music industry, he relates the two things that persuaded the record industry to adopt the cd. First, there was money to be made by having people buy their collection again (and rewrite artist contracts to account for that, of course to the industry's advantage due to the inflated ticket price for cd's). But more amusing was that the execs were head over heels with the tray opening and closing during demonstrations. It was space age, man.

And for packaging companies to make a fortune too, I would imagine. Remember those wasteful long boxes they used to come in?

That was a compromise made to get the record stores on board. All the racks they had were for displaying albums. Plop a cd in there and it sinks below eye level. Retailers were reluctant to have to invest in new racks on an unproven new form. But add an artificial heightener and your could fit three columns of cd's in one album space. Once public outcry about all that unnecessary cardboard, plus by then the cd had been confirmed by the public, the stores converted over to cd-specific racks. The goofy thing is that cd's in long boxes have collectible value now. There's a record store in Rochester, NY, called The House of Guitars that does (or did) have bins and bins of unsorted cd's still in long boxes at regular prices. A friend of mine would make regular expeditions hunting for particular discs that he'd researched as fetching a good price, which he'd then throw up on eBay. It ended up being a decent venture, paying for annual family vacations and the like. Weirdly, my recollection is that for the longest time, the most desirable long box cd was a solo album by Dennis DeYoung of Styx. The world is very confusing.

VERY confusing.

That makes sense now that you explain it. I guess they couldn't be displayed like cassette tapes and they wanted a big splash like albums.

Knopper's book makes a strong case for the industry succeeding in spite of itself in the post-disco crash, then nevertheless collapsing because those in charge learned all the wrong lessons. The resistance to and then nasty exploitation of the cd was emblematic of it all, as well as the industry's arrogance in thinking that it was a golden goose that could never ever stop laying.

Dr. Medulla wrote:

JennyB wrote:

Dr. Medulla wrote:In Steve Knopper's book on the decline of the music industry, he relates the two things that persuaded the record industry to adopt the cd. First, there was money to be made by having people buy their collection again (and rewrite artist contracts to account for that, of course to the industry's advantage due to the inflated ticket price for cd's). But more amusing was that the execs were head over heels with the tray opening and closing during demonstrations. It was space age, man.

And for packaging companies to make a fortune too, I would imagine. Remember those wasteful long boxes they used to come in?

That was a compromise made to get the record stores on board. All the racks they had were for displaying albums. Plop a cd in there and it sinks below eye level. Retailers were reluctant to have to invest in new racks on an unproven new form. But add an artificial heightener and your could fit three columns of cd's in one album space. Once public outcry about all that unnecessary cardboard, plus by then the cd had been confirmed by the public, the stores converted over to cd-specific racks. The goofy thing is that cd's in long boxes have collectible value now. There's a record store in Rochester, NY, called The House of Guitars that does (or did) have bins and bins of unsorted cd's still in long boxes at regular prices. A friend of mine would make regular expeditions hunting for particular discs that he'd researched as fetching a good price, which he'd then throw up on eBay. It ended up being a decent venture, paying for annual family vacations and the like. Weirdly, my recollection is that for the longest time, the most desirable long box cd was a solo album by Dennis DeYoung of Styx. The world is very confusing.

That's interesting. I had never even seen one of those long boxes until I bought an import copy of Petmenant Record a few years back. I may be wrong but I don't think they ever existed in UK.

101Walterton wrote:

Dr. Medulla wrote:

JennyB wrote:

Dr. Medulla wrote:In Steve Knopper's book on the decline of the music industry, he relates the two things that persuaded the record industry to adopt the cd. First, there was money to be made by having people buy their collection again (and rewrite artist contracts to account for that, of course to the industry's advantage due to the inflated ticket price for cd's). But more amusing was that the execs were head over heels with the tray opening and closing during demonstrations. It was space age, man.

And for packaging companies to make a fortune too, I would imagine. Remember those wasteful long boxes they used to come in?

That was a compromise made to get the record stores on board. All the racks they had were for displaying albums. Plop a cd in there and it sinks below eye level. Retailers were reluctant to have to invest in new racks on an unproven new form. But add an artificial heightener and your could fit three columns of cd's in one album space. Once public outcry about all that unnecessary cardboard, plus by then the cd had been confirmed by the public, the stores converted over to cd-specific racks. The goofy thing is that cd's in long boxes have collectible value now. There's a record store in Rochester, NY, called The House of Guitars that does (or did) have bins and bins of unsorted cd's still in long boxes at regular prices. A friend of mine would make regular expeditions hunting for particular discs that he'd researched as fetching a good price, which he'd then throw up on eBay. It ended up being a decent venture, paying for annual family vacations and the like. Weirdly, my recollection is that for the longest time, the most desirable long box cd was a solo album by Dennis DeYoung of Styx. The world is very confusing.

That's interesting. I had never even seen one of those long boxes until I bought an import copy of Petmenant Record a few years back. I may be wrong but I don't think they ever existed in UK.

Do you recall how cd's were displayed in the early days?

Dr. Medulla wrote:

101Walterton wrote:

Dr. Medulla wrote:

JennyB wrote:

Dr. Medulla wrote:In Steve Knopper's book on the decline of the music industry, he relates the two things that persuaded the record industry to adopt the cd. First, there was money to be made by having people buy their collection again (and rewrite artist contracts to account for that, of course to the industry's advantage due to the inflated ticket price for cd's). But more amusing was that the execs were head over heels with the tray opening and closing during demonstrations. It was space age, man.

And for packaging companies to make a fortune too, I would imagine. Remember those wasteful long boxes they used to come in?

That was a compromise made to get the record stores on board. All the racks they had were for displaying albums. Plop a cd in there and it sinks below eye level. Retailers were reluctant to have to invest in new racks on an unproven new form. But add an artificial heightener and your could fit three columns of cd's in one album space. Once public outcry about all that unnecessary cardboard, plus by then the cd had been confirmed by the public, the stores converted over to cd-specific racks. The goofy thing is that cd's in long boxes have collectible value now. There's a record store in Rochester, NY, called The House of Guitars that does (or did) have bins and bins of unsorted cd's still in long boxes at regular prices. A friend of mine would make regular expeditions hunting for particular discs that he'd researched as fetching a good price, which he'd then throw up on eBay. It ended up being a decent venture, paying for annual family vacations and the like. Weirdly, my recollection is that for the longest time, the most desirable long box cd was a solo album by Dennis DeYoung of Styx. The world is very confusing.

That's interesting. I had never even seen one of those long boxes until I bought an import copy of Petmenant Record a few years back. I may be wrong but I don't think they ever existed in UK.

Do you recall how cd's were displayed in the early days?

101 has no functional memory of the years between 1985 and 2005.

Silent Majority wrote:

Dr. Medulla wrote:

101Walterton wrote:

Dr. Medulla wrote:

JennyB wrote: And for packaging companies to make a fortune too, I would imagine. Remember those wasteful long boxes they used to come in?

That was a compromise made to get the record stores on board. All the racks they had were for displaying albums. Plop a cd in there and it sinks below eye level. Retailers were reluctant to have to invest in new racks on an unproven new form. But add an artificial heightener and your could fit three columns of cd's in one album space. Once public outcry about all that unnecessary cardboard, plus by then the cd had been confirmed by the public, the stores converted over to cd-specific racks. The goofy thing is that cd's in long boxes have collectible value now. There's a record store in Rochester, NY, called The House of Guitars that does (or did) have bins and bins of unsorted cd's still in long boxes at regular prices. A friend of mine would make regular expeditions hunting for particular discs that he'd researched as fetching a good price, which he'd then throw up on eBay. It ended up being a decent venture, paying for annual family vacations and the like. Weirdly, my recollection is that for the longest time, the most desirable long box cd was a solo album by Dennis DeYoung of Styx. The world is very confusing.

That's interesting. I had never even seen one of those long boxes until I bought an import copy of Petmenant Record a few years back. I may be wrong but I don't think they ever existed in UK.

Do you recall how cd's were displayed in the early days?

101 has no functional memory of the years between 1985 and 2005.

C'mon, Madness and various 2-Tone retrospective comps were released in that period. Plus Oasis. Lots of Oasis.
(Also the obligatory sheep fucking reference.)

Silent Majority wrote:

Dr. Medulla wrote:

101Walterton wrote:

Dr. Medulla wrote:

JennyB wrote: And for packaging companies to make a fortune too, I would imagine. Remember those wasteful long boxes they used to come in?

That was a compromise made to get the record stores on board. All the racks they had were for displaying albums. Plop a cd in there and it sinks below eye level. Retailers were reluctant to have to invest in new racks on an unproven new form. But add an artificial heightener and your could fit three columns of cd's in one album space. Once public outcry about all that unnecessary cardboard, plus by then the cd had been confirmed by the public, the stores converted over to cd-specific racks. The goofy thing is that cd's in long boxes have collectible value now. There's a record store in Rochester, NY, called The House of Guitars that does (or did) have bins and bins of unsorted cd's still in long boxes at regular prices. A friend of mine would make regular expeditions hunting for particular discs that he'd researched as fetching a good price, which he'd then throw up on eBay. It ended up being a decent venture, paying for annual family vacations and the like. Weirdly, my recollection is that for the longest time, the most desirable long box cd was a solo album by Dennis DeYoung of Styx. The world is very confusing.

That's interesting. I had never even seen one of those long boxes until I bought an import copy of Petmenant Record a few years back. I may be wrong but I don't think they ever existed in UK.

Do you recall how cd's were displayed in the early days?

101 has no functional memory of the years between 1985 and 2005.

Hey 85-97!!
I think they were just displayed as they are now?
I remember there weren't many CD's on display as there was no back catalogue so to start with you only had top 20 albums. That's my excuse for buying some shit CD's!!!

101Walterton wrote:I think they were just displayed as they are now?
I remember there weren't many CD's on display as there was no back catalogue so to start with you only had top 20 albums. That's my excuse for buying some shit CD's!!!

Unless UK retailers used different racks or immediately converted to special cd racks, I suspect your memory is faulty. The second half of the 80s was an awkward period for media type in that albums and cd's were both being stocked side by side.

Dr. Medulla wrote:

101Walterton wrote:I think they were just displayed as they are now?
I remember there weren't many CD's on display as there was no back catalogue so to start with you only had top 20 albums. That's my excuse for buying some shit CD's!!!

Unless UK retailers used different racks or immediately converted to special cd racks, I suspect your memory is faulty. The second half of the 80s was an awkward period for media type in that albums and cd's were both being stocked side by side.

They had special CD racks but like I said they only stocked top 20 at best so wasn't like a big display. I was living in central London at the time so can only vouch for the major retailers don't know what the independants did. But there was definately no long boxes.


and if Heston or Marky pop and say there was I have my coat half on already.

Incidently, when I was working at the record shop, pre CDs, one of my jobs was to go to the local butchers and buy a load of meat bags off him as they were the perfect size for singles