Today I bought the new Nick Cave album, Dig, Lazarus, Dig! I had a giftcard for Borders from some friends, so I paid too much money for it, but at least it comes with a thick little book and a nice hard case with some cool art. Something worth paying for, at least.
When I was given the latest PJ Harvey CD, by comparison, it was just stuck in a little cardboard folder. No liner notes, no nothing. Might as well have downloaded it from iTunes. The latest Mos Def CD was in a plain plastic case.
Yet the prices were comparable. (Bought the Nick Cave record at Borders, which is guaranteed to jack the price up at least $3.)
Record labels, if you want people to keep buying tangible CDs, you might have to put some friggin’ effort into creating something tangibly worth spending $13 to $18 on. I still buy CDs because I like liner notes. I like to read lyrics and look at pictures and think about the design that went into creating the record. I buy vinyl as art—old record covers were beautiful, and a tiny graphic of it on your iPod just doesn’t cut it.
Just an observation.
yet another new look.
interesting