Rant! About CDs! In shops! The state of them!
This is something that has been bugging me for some time now - perhaps at last I have found an outlet for my rage. (And possibly some fellow sympathisers.)
I have the 'collecting' gene that I imagine many other Word readers share, and that extends to attempting to keep the stuff I collect in good nick. In the same way that I don't bend page corners or rest my mug of tea on my books, I don't leave my CDs lying around out of their cases, or gleefully yank the booklets about till they crease or tear. I replace damaged jewel cases, and I try not to scuff my ridiculously flimsy, cardboard digipack limited editions.
However - and perhaps this is to do with the downloading 'revolution' and most people just don't care about the packaging anymore - I find it's increasingly difficult to find something that isn't knackered before I even get it into the house.
1) Record shops seem to take the wrapping off CDs so the cases get scratched in no time.
2) We can send a man to the moon but we can't invent a circle-shaped 'sale' sticker that doesn't leave something mysterious behind when you peel it off.
3) And the security tag leaves gunk on the edge of the case that fastens it to the next CD on your shelf.
4) Digipacks are shoved into racks so that their corners bend and their spines break.
5) Record companies shove creased or torn booklets into cases. (And to add insult to injury, there now seems to be a brand new curved style of jewel case catching on, that snags the booklets even more, and you can't buy replacements for your scratched copy.)
6) Mail order companies - one in particular - seem to be playing frisbee with everything I order before packing it up and sending it to me.
If I want to buy something that looks like it's been in Oxfam for six months, I'll go to Oxfam. Sorry if I'm the only person on the internet worried about this but GOD I feel so much better now.
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I respect and understand your dedication and concerns but....
as I've gotten older I have cared less and less about keeping my CD's pristine.
I can happily leave them out of their cases.
Sometimes I peel the stickers off, sometimes I don't.
The day about 15 years ago when I sold all my decent vinyl because I was skint was the day a small part of me died and my attitude to my possesions changed.
It can be very liberating to just stop caring if your CD cases get scratched.
I would like to make it clear that I still care greatly about the music just not the condition of the case or sleeve.
I also have two cats running around the place who have little respect for anything I might own. You can't shout at cats, it's a waste of time so best to just relax.
After twenty plus years...
....of having offspring around the house I am now so pathetically grateful to pick up a piece of packaging and find the intended item actually *inside* it that I wouldn't dare ask for anything more.
Are record shops going to see out the year ?
everytime I go in one ,they always seem hollow empty places, i'm surprised you can ever find the cd you want let alone one that's un-scratched.
as to you collection i think you need to scratch the odd one yourself you'll better honest.
doubt it
I wanted to buy the new Steve Winwood CD. It was £16.99 in HMV. I'm wasn't paying that for what I suspected to be inessential but enjoyable music. Almost half that price online - so bought it from Amazon instead. It IS inessential but enjoyable (of course).
The thing that's funny about HMV et. al. is how much faith they put in DVDs about 5 years back. That market has fallen flat too and now they are buggered (only two DVDs worth repeated viewing - Tap and The Flights). Shops full of product that no-one wants particularly. Bye!
I was given a £25 HMV voucher for Christmas
Here we are at the end of August and I've only used £3 so far for the book "Charlie Wilson's War". It's a wasteland in that shop.
shit...
I've got forty quids worth of HMV vouchers, any suggestions on alternative non music products I can buy from one of their outlets?
the oxford st
branch had a large ace records reissue display in the basement whihc could be worth a look what about comedy or spoken word cd's?
My Wife
lovely as she is, uxorious as I am, leaves CDs lying around like coasters. Where the feck is my Liege & Lief Deluxe Anniversary edition. Lost in the mix, that's where!
I agree. I feel the same about books and have been skimming through record bins and bookshelvesd for the last 30 years trying to find thge least grungy product. Respect to amazon, play, et al, the shit comes in polythene and wrapped in bubbs. Maybe that's the only way.
HMV? Arseholes more like.
Does anyone else resent browsing for Van Morrison or Bob Dylan whilst HMV play scratchy, brain melting techno. Even ravers can't listen to that shit without a few e's!
Question marks
I missed about 6 question marks out in my last post. Please insert these as reccompense:
??????
Slightly tangential
Am I the only person in the world who struggles to get the cellophane sealing wrapper off a CD case without resorting to sharp knives and the potential for serious self-injury?
Is there some magic way of removing it that everyone else knows but has mysteriously passed me by?
Hold a lighter to the cellophane
for a couple of seconds.
You're not alone Diz....
I too have resorted to sharp objects.
I try and and get one of those folded bits in the corners going and it just doesn't happen.
After a few minutes of this it turns into a bit of a frenzy with ludicrous techniques coming into play involving fingers and thumbs at strange angles.
By this time I'm getting a bit hot and bothered and that's when I head for the cutlery drawer.
Too true
But it has to be a proper carving or paring knife with a sharp pointy end. In my experience an ordinary dinner knife just leads to much useless twisting with no tearing of the wrapper, potntial damage to the case and increasing levels of irritation on my part.
being an old school
graphic designer, one of the tools of my trade is a scalpel - perfect for slitting the buggers open
my other weapon of choice is for removing stickers - lighter fluid, it melts the gum and allows you to slide the buggers off - beware though, the blighters often leave behind a greasy stain
Lighter fuel...
yes, this works a treat.
Good question
The bit that annoys me is the barcoded adhesive strip that wraps around the top of a lot CDs these days. What's it there for? Why does it have a barcode when there's already one on the CD? Why does the little bit that reads 'open here' never work? Why does it have to be so god-damn difficult to remove something that appears to have no purpose in the first place? Etc.
Yes! Those bloody things as well....
I'm getting worked up here.
Although this is very close to turning into an episode of "Grumpy Old Men(or Women)".
I think those are on American import CDs only
If I was living in American, and I had to take those off every CD purchased, then I would have stopped buying CDs long ago and joined the free-for-all downloaded revolution without any remorse. Terrible, stupid things.
Adhesive strip
It is extremely difficult to get all the strip off as well. As with the sale stickers, if you do succeed in getting that last bits off, you find a sticky residue.
The answer...
Isopropyl alcohol swabs... of the sort used to wipe and sterilise the skin prior to an injection.
Go to any chemist and ask for a box of "Sterets" or "Medi-swabs".
80% Isopropyl solution is a mild solvent which will remove most of these glues (with sufficient rubbing) but which doesn't damage the plastic case like acetone (nail polish remover) would. It's basically the fluid you used to buy for your cassette head cleaners but in handy mini-wipe/swab.
Once you've got a box of them in the house you'd end up finding a million uses for them!
Use your teeth
I do it unthinkingly and run a tooth along the top edge rips the cellophane no probs
Nail scissors
are the answer.
Simple.
Cellophane shrink-wrap: thumb nail down the gap between the case front spine and the front hinged bit of the cover - then just tear the bugger off.
Import sticky strip along the top edge: carefully prise open the CD hinge, then turn the whole caboodle inside-out, hinging around the sticky strip. Pull the two halves gently apart, peeling the top strip off in one piece.
Rob's yer dad's bruv.
PS If the sticky strip leaves gunk behind, use some isopropyl alcohol and a clean cloth, i.e. use some decent anti-static fluid and the hem of your T shirt.
You must have very sharp thumb nails
or is it that foxy claw thing!?!?
It's the right hand thumb,
with the left hand edge of the nail cut at a slightly protruding jaunty angle, and the nail itself hardened by years of finger-picking use as a plectrum substitute. Ernie Ball Earthwood lights, with a 52 bottom E, if you're interested.
This information...
could only be accessed on The Word blog.
I've never liked CD's
I'm nowhere near half as bothered about MP3's and downloading replacing CD's as I was when CD's replaced vinyl.
I just see CD's as a souless piece of mass produced plastic anyway, and while vinyl was of course mass produced too, it just always seemed like it was YOUR own personal item.
LPs
Like leather-bound books, were respected, treasured and handed down the generations as heirlooms.
CDs on the other hand are "indestructable" and can be covered in jam (Tomorrow's World) and are GIVEN AWAY on magazines and newspapers. I've even seen them on the outside of cereal packets.
I tend to stick to boxed-sets and special editions where time and effort has gone into their production. I can see my ancestors proudly displaying these on the Antiques Roadshow in years to come. Totally obsolete and unplayable but nonetheless intact.
The CD matters, but the packaging is now irrelevant
I used to be really hardcore about only buying good condition stock. Since I got an MP3 player I've just stopped caring. I keep the CDs in 100% perfect nick, and I keep the cases in excellent condition, just now I don't care if the cases are damaged when I buy them, or after I've had them for a while. The packaging is worthless now. I don't waste time replacing cracked cases or cases with horrible glue residue on them.
In the past I would never have desecrated my collection with stinky second hand CDs. Then I read an article on the internet that made me rethink. It simply said that you should just buy second hand CDs to rip onto MP3, and then the CD itself can just be put in a bag at the bottom of a cupboard out of sight. As long as a perfect MP3 copy can be made, you have just saved yourself paying over the odds for an iTunes download, and you get a lossless hard copy for future upgrading. Truly the physical condition of the packaging of your music collection is now irrelevant. Just keep the CDs free from scratches.
Unfortunately, LOUD,
there ain't no such thing as "a perfect MP3 copy", and neither is there anything lossless about them.
Even a 320 Kbps MP3 is of very significantly lower audio fidelity compared to the original files on the source CD.
By "perfect" I mean no skipping because the CD...
...you ripped had scratches on it.
And the hard copy can later be used to rip a lossless version when Apple eventually release the 1Tb iPod.
Those plastic 'teeth' that hold the CD in place...
...generally all break with my mail order CDs. Why can't all CDs be like the mini-vinyl-albums, ie a paper insert within a small foldout card holder (like a double album used to be)?
All music shops are so darn expensive compared to BangCD, CDWow and HMV.com, they are no longer a must-visit for me and seem dead-men-walking.
Slight tangent but its true
the pleasure of looking around ' record shops ' has gone. I have recently visited Truro and Exeter and the cd sections have shruck to such a small size with such obvious selections its hardly worthwhile. now im left with the bookshop and a very long lunch whilst the other half shops .
Another slight tangent
Maybe it's just me but wouldn't you think a shop that claims to be "Mad about music" would try to avoid putting the bar code label over the tracklisting?
Maybe...
...they're just really, really angry about music. That would explain a lot.
Picky...
I'm always very picky when selecting which copy of something (asuming there are multuple copies) I pick up in a shop. CDs, Magazines, Clothes, I will look at as many as possible to choose the most unblemished article. If none meets my satisfaction I move on. I've found play.com and hmv.com tend to deliver items in excellent condition, although occaisionally the cellophane on a digipack causes a fold in the top corner, which is annoying. Today the new Verve album arrived, special edition book format, perfect condition and a joy to unwrap.
Caseless. Bereft of cases. Yes, we have no cases. Etc...
I stopped worrying too much about CD cases when I realised my collection was starting to take up waaaaaay too much space. Over the course of quite a few hours I binned all the cases and put the discs and sleeves inside the sort of canvas holdalls used by DJs and bought from Maplin for £10 each. Voila! My whole collection shrunk from a bookcase-full to four (pretty well-stuffed) cases. Yes, I do have to be careful when taking the discs from place to place tucked inside their sleeve, but the amount of space I've saved makes it well worth it. It's also made me realise that what matters is the music, not what it's carried in.
I'm tempted...
...to quote Lester in American Beauty: "This isn't life, it's just stuff. And it's become more important to you than living. Well, honey, that's just nuts." Since when did packaging, ferchrissake, become more important than the real stuff that, since I first heard Little Richard's 'The Girl Can't Help It,' has given me gooseflesh?
I still..
try to look after my cds, but not as much as I look after my vinyl! As for record shops, they never have what I'm looking for anyway so I just purchase online or download. I was in Nashville during the summer, and visited The Great Escape. It was just like being a teenager all over again! My mates eventually just left me there when they realised that I was there for the day!
I'm extremely tempted to do...
... what MrLovegrove has done - but what's got me thinking is in what order did you file the CD's away? Surely, if you normally keep (or try to) them all in alphabetical order (by artist, then chronological order of album release) - doesn't that mean a new album by, say Air, involve shuffling the rest of the CD's onwards by one place?
I'm sure this could get hopelessly complicated & convoluted...
Steady on
I don't think I quite said that the packaging mattered more to me than the music. It doesn't. But I would like to defend myself (politely) against the implication from a few posters that, faced with the All-Importance of the music, one is somehow 'wrong' or at least misguided to place any value on the package at all.
The look of the thing - and sure, this was more a feature of vinyl's heyday but some designers are clearly innovating with what can be done with CD-sized art - is meant to 'enhance' the overall experience. If it looks good, you are more likely to notice - and cherish - it. I'm sure artists like Morrissey, for example, who took such care over those Smiths sleeves, would argue that the object itself can be a beautiful thing worth having. My favourite book would still be my favourite book if I printed it out on scraps of A4, but so much better to have a decent edition of it.
Given that I totally buy into this, I do cherish my records, unashamedly. I don't mind if people think that's irrational, it probably is.
But I think it's more rational to resent going into a shop to buy something 'new', and being expected to pay 'new stuff' money for an item that looks like it's had ten careless owners. You wouldn't buy - new - torn books (I assume), a ripped jacket or a dented car. To me, it's the same.
And - yes - broken teeth in the CD tray! Those import strips that don't peel off properly! What can one say, but ... 'Gah!'
a tangental rant
...as touched on by some above. If ever there was an example of a self fulfilling prophecy it is the record shop. My local HMV has just reduced the section devoted to cds to just 2 aisles!! The rest is given over to DVDs and games. There are no longer sections devoted to folk, world music, country etc.
The shop manager claims that demand is so poor that the change was necessary, but it's hardly surprising that people are deserting the retailer when there is so little to choose from. I'm told that I can always order a particular cd, but this defeats the very object of perusing the racks for some instant gratification. It I had wanted to order it, I would have done so via Amazon.
CELLOPHANE
ACE records mail order used to sell a special tool for getting the cellophane shrink rap off cds , not sure if the still have them . And don't start me off on that strip along the top of US imports ...
DEJA VU
I went into the local Zavvi yesterday to use up the Christmas voucher on the new Brian Wilson(bargain bin in 3 months) only to find they had loads of old vinyl albums for sale at the mouth watering price of £2 - all wrapped in tight fitting cellophane.
Didn't buy but had a quick flick through a box to see a few old friends that have never made the reprint to CD.
Have Zavvi found the remains of the Virgin Megastore 'The Vinyl Years' after the management buyout?
There's a load...
of vinyl in the Cork store as well, but it's all crap!! I noticed that not long after the buyout their vinyl section just got bigger, so surely they must have a few good ones they could have put on sale!!