When did they start putting those horrible "sticker seals" over the CDs?

I saw them on the mono Beatles cds in 1986. I worked for Turtles at the time.

 

Lots of good points in this thread about CD packaging.

When CDs were first sold in the US, they were all in longboxes - usually cardboard - sometimes plastic clamshells. The jewelbox inside was not shrinkwrapped. There was ever increasing pressure for the labels to get rid of longboxes, because they were considered to be "tree-killers".

Many (most?) US retailers fought hard to keep CDs in longboxes. Why? Simple. The larger size made them harder to steal. At the time, the cost of electronic security systems was out of the reach of most independent music stores.

Also, many independents were using their vinyl racks & re-tooling them to handle longboxed CDs. Let's face it - as fast as CD was growing & vinyl shrinking in those days, it was a huge expense to unload racks & buy all new ones.

There were endless debates about the waste inherent in longboxes vs. the theft issue. In some instances, it got a little ugly, with some retailers even pushing for compensation from the labels for the money they would lose.

In the end, the US system was held up as being bloated & wasteful compared to other countries & the long boxes went away. (Although I'm sure you'll find members on this forum who still have a few! )

The transition was pure hell. During the final year or so of longboxes, the labels started shrinkwrapping CDs inside the longboxes. I remember that there were little stickers on the outside of the longbox that would tell you if the CD inside was shrinkwrapped.

And as others have stated, first came the silver "dogbone" seal & later the printed seal at the top. The printed seal also allowed for the artist & title to be displayed along the top to aid in browsing. Carefully removing the top of the jewelcase & pulling it up to the top edge usually helps in removing this seal. Although, in more recent years, the material used in these has gotten thinner & often leaves small pieces stuck to the case. Also, I've noticed that older CDs that may have been on the shelf a bit longer are more likely to leave residue on the case.

Dexter

 

They're annoying and I unhinge.

However, what's even WORSE is that Entertainmart here in town puts their own sticky security tape over their used product...which means it leaves residue all over your jewel cases. They even do it for cardboard cases.

The type of security tape they use is not meant for ANYONE to get into without a knife. It's super strong, it makes the factory stuff that comes on the retail copies look like a joke.

I've had to buy replacement jewel cases every time I've bought product there.

 

Call me crazy, but I kind of like seeing those dog bone stickers. Especially on the OJC cd's. Reminds me of the old days...

 

This video should also be easy to relate to as well, but also is NSFW;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAP8Jz32zR4

 

Yes, I'm sure DRM and rootkits remind other people of the old days too....

 

I agree they are a pain. I even have difficulty removing the shrinkwrap on most CD's! I can never find where the damn stuff is joined together. I know it is usually on the top and bottom edges but do you think I can lift the wrap!The good news is the residue from the white sticker thing is easily removed without damage to the jewel case with a bit of isopropyl alcohol and a paper towel.

 

BTW...At a time when longboxes were still the rage, there were a few stores who bucked the trend & actually took the jewelcases out of their boxes. One, in the Baltimore area, started as a no-longbox store from the beginning. They invested in a shrinkwrap machine & as I recall, they had a dedicated bunch of kids who were constantly in the back room, taking CDs out of their longboxes & shrinkwrapping them to go on the floor.

They were one of the few independent retailers who bought a security system. Originally, they would stick the tags on the shrinkwrapped jewelcase - until they started seeing more & more shrinkwrap on the floor or shoved in odd places. At that point, the backroom process would actually entail open the jewelcases completely, dropping a security tag in under the tray, putting the case back together & shrinkwrapping.

As the longboxes went away, there was a huge outcry for security tags - and typical endless record company debate until they decided on a course of action.

BTW - I can handle the tags being glued to the undersde of the tray, because I can usually get them off - but I don't like the practice of sticking them to the J-Card - you have to leave them alone or you'll destroy the artwork.

Dexter

 

Hope you don't mind, but I'm going to submit this to Cambridge for their next run of Dictionaries as the perfect definition for 'First World Problem'.

 

from wikipedia:
Longbox packaging was phased out officially as of April 1, 1993 due to the controversy. At the same time, major retail stores were no longer selling vinyl records and had converted their displays to accommodate shrink-wrapped jewel cases, meeting the rising consumer demand for CDs while eliminating the need for longboxes.

Magnetic strips were on CD's until about 1995. I worked in a record store and I remember buying Megadeth Youthansia, Page & Plant and some other CD's n late 1994 and they still had the strips. I was just looking Wikipedia for albums released in 1995 and IIRC Warner Bros started with the top strips first and then other labels followed suit in 1996. Madonna Something to Remember was released i late 1995 and that's when I remember the them using the new top strip labels.

I also remember Tower records recycling the long boxes for you in the early 90's.

 

The dog bone did not destroy my stereo.

 

One of my local Best Buy stores has a light pole out front with dozens of those stickers all over it. Don't know why, or who would go to such trouble for just those white stickers. Very strange, but it has the names of many artists on that one pole.

 

I'd say early 90s, about 1991.

 

i guess I am invisible. It was 1993.

Peter Gabriel Shaking the Tree was available w/o a longbox in 1990 but it was sold behind the counter. I remember that was the only one pre 1993 in the US.

 

This video is great - and really ****in funny.

 

I just use my rapier like fingernail to cut it open along the seam then peel the two halves off.

Can do it like that before I'm halfway out of the store.

 

An earlier discussion of this topic:

Adhesive labels on the top of CD cases

If you're talking about these things...



...they do more than set off alarms in retail stores. Depending on the record company, they contain a lot of permanent data. A local retailer was caught selling CDs before the street date, and falsely accused us of selling him the product early. We could have lost our advance shipments for future new releases if these actually came from us. Luckily, data flashed to the strip showed the freight bill # from a shipment from UMVD in Gloversville, NY to Willie's central warehouse (a local chain of record stores) in Richmond, VA.

This information not only got us off the hook for breaking street dates (which we never did), but lead to the conviction of this thug and his accomplices for breaking into Willie's warehouse and stealing this merchandise. I don't know for certain how much other info is embedded, and other distributors may have stored different data on them, but this sure helped to save our butts.

 

Regarding phasing out of longboxes, I seem to recall a brief period where the two overlapped - i.e., labels were actually shrinkwrapping CDs inside the longbox. The longboxes had some sort of red and yellow diamond emblem on them that indicated to retailers that the CD itself was shrinkwrapped, if they wanted to discard the longbox and stock just the CD on the shelf.

 

I hate these.

 

RIAA labels went from 6-by-12 inch packaging to 5-by-5[char]#0189[/char] inch packaging in April 1993, but lots of independent labels had already made the change by then.

I scanned this Billboard announcement for another thread, but it's worth mentioning again for people who want to know the details:

End of Longbox CD Packaging

 

Exactly what I do. If done correctly it doesn't leave any residue.

Darryl

 

Yes, many but not all were red and yellow, like this one:



I can't seem to find it now, but in a previous discussion of the diamond stickers, I posted different color combinations.

 

That's the one. I remember some were pre-printed on the longbox, and some were stickers that were clearly added later. I don't remember different color combinations, though.

 

Yes, many stickers on video products and CDs come off easily enough, but once in a while, there are problems.

If the stickers themselves don't help remove residue, I always have a bottle of 'Goo Gone' at the ready (I do not recommend using 'Goo Gone' to remove residue from paper without testing a small area first to see if it also lifts ink off the page).

 

Aren't you near st Louis? Which best buy? Road trip!

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