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What's the future of music packaging?


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Keep in mind, this is coming from someone who hasn't been collecting for long so take it with a grain of salt.

I've been wondering for years why the music industry follow the lead of baseball cards (yes, baseball cards.) I collected them as a kid and the sports card industry saw a big boom in the late 90's thanks to a few new things.

-Increase in autographed cards

-Rookie cards that were sequentially numbered

-Cards that included swatches of game-used memorabelia

-Redemption cards form memorabelia

-Cards with substantially low print numbers, even 1/1's

I've always wondered the music industry didn't follow suit when the digital age "brought down" the music industry as we know it.

I've seen bits and pieces here and there, such as records that are limited and numbered. The Between the Buried & Me 'Parallax' EP reminded me of opening a pack of baseball cards in that you didn't know what color you would get.

Imagine purchasing a record with the possibility that you could get a redemption card for an autographed guitar or tickets to a show. Imagine buying a record that could be a test press or even a 1/1. Or just the thrill of not knowing what color or pressing you were getting.

Anyway, just some food for though.

Peace

You are buying ONE Booster pack. Inside your Booster Pack you will find one copy of Half Hearted Hero's version of Vanessa Carlton's Smash Hit "A Thousand Miles". These are completely random and blind packaged meaning you won't know what you get till you open it! If your looking for the super rare stuff, I suggest taking your chances with a Booster Box.

Complete Pressing Info -

Black w/ Streaks - 51

Not Orange - 36

Pink - 36

Yellow - 26

White - 24

Green - 19

Purple - 14

Dirty White - 11

White W/ Pink - 8

Solid Black - 8

Orange -7

Fantasia Elephants - 3

Ghastly - 3

Not Salmon - 2

Salmon -2

Purple Puke - 2

Silver Sneakers - 2

Sunburst - 1

Starburst - 1

Dragon Force - 1

Avocado - 1

Not See Through Green - 1

Rainy Cloud - 1

TMNT - 1

Test - 15

Seriously GTFO that listing is exactly what you said. Please admit you were wrong.

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You are buying ONE Booster pack. Inside your Booster Pack you will find one copy of Half Hearted Hero's version of Vanessa Carlton's Smash Hit "A Thousand Miles". These are completely random and blind packaged meaning you won't know what you get till you open it! If your looking for the super rare stuff, I suggest taking your chances with a Booster Box.

Complete Pressing Info -

Black w/ Streaks - 51

Not Orange - 36

Pink - 36

Yellow - 26

White - 24

Green - 19

Purple - 14

Dirty White - 11

White W/ Pink - 8

Solid Black - 8

Orange -7

Fantasia Elephants - 3

Ghastly - 3

Not Salmon - 2

Salmon -2

Purple Puke - 2

Silver Sneakers - 2

Sunburst - 1

Starburst - 1

Dragon Force - 1

Avocado - 1

Not See Through Green - 1

Rainy Cloud - 1

TMNT - 1

Test - 15

Always a trip, when people order the URP random vinyl specials, and come up with witty ass names for each crappy looking color variant. It's just random ass, regrind, cheap looking and sounding vinyl. Nothing special about it.

Same thing with the Re-inventing Axl Rose record. A million variants all based on either Erika or URP random scrap vinyl.

But hell, I'd do it too I guess if wacky names make the /5 or whatever variants sell for gobs of money.

Also, 15 test pressings!?

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Gay
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Seriously GTFO that listing is exactly what you said. Please admit you were wrong.

Really? Cause I saw a link to one particular example of what I posted. That would be like if you said we should discuss universal health care for everyone and I replied with, "Here's a link to a new kind of health care for employees of one particular company. So therefore universal health care has already been done."

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If you have thought about something chances are other people have too.

I didn't see anything in that link about most of what I was talking about.

Seriously GTFO that listing is exactly what you said. Please admit you were wrong.

Really? Cause I saw a link to one particular example of what I posted. That would be like if you said we should discuss universal health care for everyone and I replied with, "Here's a link to a new kind of health care for employees of one particular company. So therefore universal health care has already been done."

Dude I gave you an example of exactly what you were talking about. What more do you want?

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The reason this would never work the same way in general is that if you do this with the record it is still the same record every time. Now granted...there are variant collectors and the like, but I have been a collector of both cards and records/music and the difference of course is that if you opened a pack of cards you may not get the jersey card but if not you still get random cards of random players and still could get something nice etc.. If it was like an album and you opened a pack of cards but if you didn't get the "special 1/1 variant or insert" you just got the same Tom Brady card in every pack, no one would have taken the gamble.

The only real way the records would have the same sense of collectibility would not just be special chase items or variants but if you also had like a "set" to complete of the underlying record as well. Like an example would be if a band issued 50 different 7"s with a different song on each one, and also the possibilty for chase items, so that if you didn't get the big payoff, you still don't know what song you are going to get and can still collect those.

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Dude I gave you an example of exactly what you were talking about. What more do you want?

Look at the title of the thread man. I'm talking about the industry as a whole. I pointed out several ideas (redemption cards for tickets, redemption cards for autographed memorabelia, utilizing sequential numbering more, possibly pulling a test press) that aren't being used. That booster pack link you posted was really cool and I wasn't aware of it, but you're acting like every idea I had is already in use.

Even if it were I'm still asking the question, where do you see the future of music packaging going?

Oh and I had another cool idea. Imagine buying a record and receiving a redemption card for something that was used in the recording of the album (drum head, sticks, guitar, amp).

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eh. music has been commodified, marginalized, and otherwise devalued to the point where it's hard to even give a shit. it's not a cultural statement or anything anymore. people used to line up and eagerly anticipate buying an album and sit at home in their room with their friends and just soak it in. now a song is a free itunes download code you get with a starbucks latte. the future of music packaging is that it's going to become even more meaningless and disposable.

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