TTTMS #2: Digipaks
Things That Threaten My Sanity: Digipaks
What’s wrong with this picture? Click to enlarge the image if necessary. See it? One of the CD cases protrudes slightly above the others in a fairly unsightly manner. You might pass the shelf several times before noticing, but once you see it, the minute inconsistency will drive you mad. Or maybe it will just annoy you very slightly. But if you think about it long enough, it will probably drive you mad.
The problem is that that “CD case” is actually no such thing. It’s a digipak, which is a fancy name for a chintzy cardboard panel abomination. While some of my peers have notably come out in support of digipaks, I ask you to be vigilant in steeling yourself against their persuasive charms. Digipaks are one of the biggest shams being perpetrated on the world’s music-buying population.
I don’t know about you, but I have a lot of respect for my CDs. Since I treat them a bit like little people, an analogy to the human world is fitting. A jewel case is a sturdy structural marvel, like a house for a CD. Grab one and examine it carefully; there’s a precise, deceptively simple architecture at work. A loose disc is like a hobo, perpetually adrift and looking more ragged by the day. And a digipak is the cardboard box the hobo pulls over himself to sleep at night. It might temporarily protect him from the elements, but it doesn’t make him any less homeless. It begins falling apart the very first time he uses it.
Do the right thing, world. Every CD deserves a proper plastic home.
What’s wrong with this picture?
There’s more Blaine Larsen than Chris LeDoux?
Really though, digipacks don’t bother me as much as the shoddy quality found on some jewel cases.
There might even be more Lonestar than Chris LeDoux :o Inconceivable!
How embarrassing. I need to work on my LeDoux collection.
I appreciate cardboard packaging when something creative is done with it, but when it starts scratching the CD I have to draw the line. What other product is sold in packaging that damages the very thing it’s supposed to protect?
I’m also proud to see that other people organize CDs alphabetically AND sub-organize chronologically.
They’re a bit off chronologically. I’m only real picky about that when I have a whole shelf of one artist. If it’s just a few CDs, I can find what I need quickly enough.
I agree with you about packaging that damages the CD. Also not a fan of putting CDs in those sub-digipak cardboard sleeve things where you can hear them sliding around inside before you even remove the shrinkwrap.
Oh, so what now, you think you’re better than me?
I’ll take you down, Maglite.
:)
Nothing personal, Dan. I just think the good people deserve to know the truth.
They can’t HANDLE the truth!
I like digipaks because they don’t have the safety stickers that are sometimes impossible to get off, and occasionally leave sticky remainders (like my unfortunate Heaven, Heartache, and the Power Of Love CD).
The best designed digipak I’ve seen is LBT’s A Place To Land, FYI.
I’m not wild about digipaks, but I hate it when the little part that holds the CDs in the plastic cases breaks and the CD scrapes against the sharp parts that remain.
I buy digital music nowadays, for the most part, but I categorize and keep my CDs in chronological order according to artist. I did have to stop alphabetizing the artists though, since I keep my thousands of CDs in those CD books and I don’t want to keep moving the CDs to different pages each time I buy a new artist.
Then again, since I put my CDs in books, I suppose I don’t really have a right to weigh in on this jewel case versus digipak discussion. Do I?
–Leeann
I’d put mine in the books if I could ever find one that I like. I remember back in the good ‘ol days, when I had to walk five miles to school barefooted and in the snow, they used to have books that had a place built in for liner notes.
Of course you do, Leeann. :)
I used CD books for a couple years, but ultimately found I liked having them in their cases with the liner notes and all. Plus I’m kinda militant about the alphabetical thing and CD books don’t lend themselves very well to that particular obsession.
By the way, a CD book is like a homeless shelter. OK, I’ll stop.
I actually completely agree with you about CD books. I really don’t like them either. It just became necessary after I had acquired a certain amount of CDs. Now that I own a house, I suppose I could have devoted some serious space to shelves of CDs, but my apartment living days didn’t really lend itself to that luxury. I really wish I still had all of the cases. The books I have also fit the CD booklets.
I did not realize what a deep topic this was.:)
–Leeann
PS. you really ticked someone off on our Zac Brown Band thread.:)
I did not realize what a deep topic this was.:)
Most of my posts are that way. They seem really dumb and superficial at first, but after you think about them for a while you realize that I’m a genius. Uh, yeah, that’s it.
That’s odd about the Zac Brown thread.
Ah, the genius of John Maglite…
-Leeann
I’m so going to quote you on that.
Back to the topic at hand, it sounds like you probably have a lot more CDs than I do. There’s no telling what desperate measures I’ll have to take as the collection continues to grow.
I can’t stand digi-packs either.
And that looks like an interesting CD collection. You should post a list of all your CD titles, it might work as a kind of list of recommendation.
Heh. Interesting idea, but I think it’d more likely work as a way for me to embarrass myself and deplete whatever small amount of credibility I’ve built up. If you’re really interested, you can get a sense of my regular listening habits by visiting my profile on Last.fm. That’s not quite as bad as the whole collection.
Thanks for commenting.