CD housed in a mini-LP style sleeve

I've seen posts mentioning CDs housed in a mini-LP style sleeve. I've yet to puchase any of these CDs....until recently. The CDs I purchased are from Hong Kong Universal Music and the CDs themselves resembles a vinyl LP on the label side (like the Verbatim "Vinyl" CD-R). What surprised me was that the data side is completely black. I have no problem playing these CDs in my Sony SCD-CE595 SACD/CD changer, but I don't see any "Compact Disc" logo on either the disc or the mini-LP style sleeves. So are those CDs housed in a mini-LP style sleeve, from Japan for example, also black in color on the data side of the disc? Just wondering.

 

No. LP-Style sleeves with CD from Japan gets you a normal aluminum CD.

Sounds like you have a bootleggish product. Some bootleggers use black-bottomed media to hide the fact they're CDRS! Hong Kong?? Yikes, Batman.

Is the inner hub of the CD branded with a "serial number"?

 

Nope. These are not bootlegged items; they're actually on Hong Kong Universal's website. Hong Kong Universal is going through some kind of huge reissue program where they are releasing some 40-50 titles on these black CDs. Even has a full-color 2 page ad in the local audiophile mags. Not to mention a website polling for future releases. Each of these CDs comes in a plastic sleeve, just like a vinyl LP. Also included is a CD-sized reproduction of the lyric sheet.

 

Interesting....

But no, most LP-style Japans on CD have really well-made CDs inside, aluminum with a clear substrate.

 

Here's a photo of what I am talking about....well, sort of



The data side of the CD is completely black. Are black CD-Rs, which I have never tried, the same?

BTW, Universal's list price for these CDs, as quoted on its own website, is HK$49.00. Or a little more than US$6.00 per CD.

 

A manufacturer can use whatever colored polycarbonate they want. Black, Red, Blue...

I have a few commercial CDS with colored polycarb. Songs For Drella CD Delux, I think, was orange colored. I have a few ClassicRock marketing/publisher CDs, one of them orange polycarb.

CDRs as well can be sold with yellow, orange, black, pink, red and blue polycarb. They just inject dye into the mold.

IE: It can be done, and is, but rarely Japan so far as I've seen. Hong Kong is possibly trying something in product to compete with!

 

Link? Where could one find a list of these releases online?

 

I tried linking the "minisite" HK Universal provided for this series of reissues, but it didn't work. Thus far, all of the titles released on this series are for HK Universal's local artists. However, in previous HK Universal reissue programs, certain western pop titles were also included. For example, about 2 to 3 years ago, HK Universal reissued a number of titles on a series called "The dCS series" (as in the equipment manufacturer)....again, vinyl-like black on label side but aluminum with a clear substrate on data side, housed in a gatefold cardboard case, and enclosed in a cardboard slipcase (like Sony's single-layer SACDs). I remember there was a "Best of Connie Francis" and "Best of The Platters" in the dCS series.