I love all the work that goes into Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix reissues - all the extra art and liner notes. I've been considering getting the Essential Billy Joel, but when I found an unsealed copy yesterday, I looked at the booklet, and there's very little information in there - very poorly done. It has put me off buying the set (at least temporarily).

That got me thinking, if old Prince outtakes (the ones you already have in perfect sound quality) were released with poor packaging, no information, and no promotion, would you be excited about them? I'm not asking if you'd buy them - most of us would - but would you be excited about them?

For me, packaging and track information make more of a difference than I used to believe.

Not at all. It's a nice bonus, though.

It's a big part of the sense memory of the album and the time in which I bought the album, as far as I'm concerned. The SOTT album and all the goodies that came with it - the liner notes, photos, the little peach fan club postcard - all put me exactly where I was when I first heard it. So I guess I'd have to say packaging is very important.

VERY IMPORTANT!

Very Important.
One of the main reasons I miss LP's.

Yeah, it's a big part of the reason I buy albums. I miss the times when receiving a poster with a vinyl record was a given.

I love it when a artist includes the song lyrics, after reading them, you kinda hear the song in a different way.

That's the other reason I buy, instead of burn. That is unless the artist doesn't leave any other choice but to burn. I'm not saying no names

Blue

Oh, yes. A nice, bulging package is very important.

I really dont understand the manufacturers current obsession with the Digipak.They suck.Jewel Box packaging is superior and will last longer.









...If it aint broke...yadayada...

MrTation said:

I agree.

I suppose Digipak is cheaper to mass produce?

Yes, definitely - the Digipak is much cheaper to produce. Hell, why do you think Prince's last umpteen releases have been in this flimsy packaging? It's all about being as cheap as possible nowadays.

Packaging is very important to me (and it's what I do for a living, so I'm a little biased!). I understand everyone's concern about digipaks, but unique digipaks are an exception to me. Like NEWS, for example...it's packaging that won't last long under heavy use, but it's unique and different and that made it an exciting release for me.

And...

booyah said:

I think you just wrote a review for Crystal Ball!

Packaging is always very important with reissues, as the product has to appeal to the same people that bought it the first time. Bonus tracks are as much a part of packaging as new or restored cover art. Prince will need to offer extra tracks on future re-releases.

I think that Prince always tries to put out unique POS packaging on new releases. He likes to try new things with each CD. We've seen huge fold-outs (Rave Into, etc), posters (ONAL), extra discs (Crystal Ball, ONAL), acrylic hockey-pucks (CB), debossed and screen printed logos (Symbol Promo and regular), wooden paisley boxes (D&P Promo), re-usable longboxes (AWIAD), die-cuts (NEWS, Beautiful Experience), holograms (D&P), even anti-packaging (Black Album).

Most of the time a great idea for packaging hits financial and mass production snags. Prince could not have envisioned that his Crystal Ball would look like a petri dish. Or that the Diamonds And Pearls hologram would look so damn cheap.

Maybe there were legitimate problems with the Chocolate Invasion packaging. That should not be a reason to completely shelve the project, leaving only MP3 versions of those songs released. Prince should know by now that we will always flock to his music in the highest quality that we can get our hands on. No matter how it's packaged.

its always a nice bonus to have cool packaging. it doesn't matter too much to me though, since i usually just put the discs into my disc changer and put the jewel case away somewhere.

I WANT VINYL ALBUM WITH BEAUTIFUL FOLD OUT MIDDLE WITH A LITTLE POCKETS FOR THE DUPLICATE CD AND A DVD WITH THE VIDEOS~

IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK FOR?

Reply to 'How important is packaging to you?'

Not that important... I used to buy a CD and throw out the packaging when it was new...
I had a very cool CD case.. So I go for the music side... Not the packaging... really...

booyah said:

I LOVE the packaging. I wish I had official packaging for ALL of the NPG ahdio shows. Man, some of those would have been KICK ASS.

Can u imagine Purple Rain without the poster and the flower design on the label and slip cover. What about 1999 without the pic of Prince in bed? Packaging is everything.

MrTation said:

I like the digipack. Especially for special editions, however, I enjoy purchasing regular cds also with creative packaging.

Packaging is one of the reasons I don't like Crystal ball.

I really appreciate good artwork --but including lyrics is more important, especially with singer/songwriters. I like knowing that the singer/band has put a lot of effort into not just the musical content, but the album as a whole..and the packaging is part of that process.