Now I've Seen Everything...

I was at Target yesterday and passed by their vanishingly small music section and saw that they had a box set version of the new Lorde album in the CD section. I liked her first two albums okay, but have little to no interest in the new one - plus, the $23 price tag that Target had on the box was enough to deaden any interest I would've had in it. Still, I picked it up to see what extras it had to justify the hefty price tag. (And FYI, before any wags comment, it had a different cover than the standard, somewhat notorious Solar Power album cover, so I wasn't picking it up just to get a better look at that.)

The sticker said the box contained a poster, four exclusive cards, and a download code. It very specifically stated DOES NOT CONTAIN A COMPACT DISC. There was no standard CD issue on the shelves at Target, so out of curiosity, I checked Amazon when I got home to see if they were selling a standard CD. Nope. They also are only selling this "Discless Music Box" as the only sort of CD option.

So it's gotten to the point now that the record companies are trying to peddle CD packaging for $8 or so more than a standard CD price, but without actually selling anyone a CD. Just a box with a poster and some cards - the kind of crap they used to throw in with special edition CDs for a couple bucks extra at most.

Oh - and the marketing makes it very clear that the box is biodegradable, meaning it's designed to disintegrate after a while.

I know that the music industry can't wait for us poor pathetic old farts who still prefer CDs to die (so next week's hipsters can rediscover CDs as a cool format without them being associated with oldsters and the record companies can bring them back at $40 a pop), but selling CD packaging while not bothering to actually manufacture CDs seems like a special F.U. to us saps who hate paying actual money for virtual products and who also have no interest in shelling out $30 for vinyl just because fetishists have made that a lucrative market.

(And just to make me more irritable, I came across a current shoegaze band that's new to me but sounded pretty good called Wednesday. I looked them up on bandcamp, more than willing to throw some money at them. And of course, they were offering digital download, vinyl and a SPECIAL lime green cassette. No CD, of course, although they have got to be the physical medium that's least expensive to produce. Oh well. If they don't want my money, I'm glad to not give it to them.)



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 08/22/2021 10:00AM by breno.

Lorde says she's doing this because of the environmental damage done by CDs (hence the biodegrable packaging). I had no idea the "discs" are selling for $23, but it's basically a new form of merch.

CDs are rapidly going the way of the 8-track. I went to Rough Trade Records' new location earlier in the summer, and they carried a tiny amount of them. In fact, their cassette section was almost as big. New vinyl made up at least 80% of the store. I'm sure you're right that after CDs stop being manufactured, they will have a comeback at twice the price, catering to Gen X nostalgia.

steevee Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Lorde says she's doing this because of the
> environmental damage done by CDs (hence the
> biodegrable packaging). I had no idea the "discs"
> are selling for $23, but it's basically a new form
> of merch.
>

So let me get this straight; 180g of highly toxic PVC [lead, dioxin, vinyl chloride monomer] vs. 20g of polycarbonate - which can be digested by Geotrichum candidum fungi and biologically remediated, is a losing proposition?!

<monk raises fist to the sky>

What is actually points to is that the 180g of PVC can retail for $39.99 at Target vs the CD that they are not allowing us to buy for $12.99. I get it. Do I ever get it!

I'm curious as to how much more environmental damage CDs cause than vinyl, which she IS selling. Not saying she's wrong, I just don't really see how vinyl would have any less of a carbon footprint.

As one who prefers physical product, I feel your pain. I hate how they are falling all over themselves to abandon the CD.

The Bip family had to buy a car and there was no CD player in the new car. My painfully pragmatic wife said I’d have to start using Spotify like she, my kids, and the rest of the world do. We have a family membership that I was totally unaware of.

What does encourage me is that in Lorde’s case, the album cover is a thing.. All this streaming gives me reason to worry that aesthetic concerns like album covers might go away….which would really depress me.

Love it or hate it, that Lorde cover is an eye-catcher.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/22/2021 09:37PM by Bip.

My wife laughed about this. "A disc-less CD box? That goes perfectly with Lorde's sexless crotch-shot on the cover."

There's a label called Biophilia Records that specializes in this very thing. I got two promos from them recently. Both were packages made from recycled materials and folded together, without any staples, glue or anything like that. One of them did, in fact, have a CD in it, while the other had the "this package does not contain a CD for environmental reasons" message. (I'm making it sound snarkier than it was.)

Because I got these for free, I have no idea how much they're selling the discless version for.

$23 makes it seem like a cash grab - "Look, a 'new format' we can charge you extra for!" A poster, four cards and a DL don't seem worth it. Though if someone were to buy a poster at one of her shows, it would likely cost more than that.

I still have thousands of CDs. That includes a couple of boxes - probably 2-300 - that I'd like to trade in, but record stores in Austin are not accepting CDs anymore. (They still have tons of new CDs for sale, but the used CD market is soft.) I'm either going to have to take them to Half-Price Books (where I'll probably get $20-30 at most) or (shudder) sell myself on Discogs.

Michael,

a double post is not reason enough to kill you - but a sextuple one, maybe!

for a reason i can't explain, MT's posts had to be approved. It took a minute to spot that, by which time we were flooded!

Can y'all delete the extras?

Edit: thanks!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/27/2021 04:52PM by Michael Toland.

I have listened to her new release several times now. The first time I was driving and I was not blown away but I did like it. However I have since listened to it properly in MQA at home, I really like it. It has a unique vibe to it for sure and while different than her first two, she still has her own style for sure. My only criticism would be they overdid the singing through the autotune type instrument. That element works really well on some songs but it can get grating. It's like when the dude from Fishbone became enamored with the theremin, small doses man.

I love PURE HEROINE and like MELODRAMA a great deal, but I'm not sure what to make of SOLAR POWER. (The tendency to throw out hot takes the day of its release, based on one listen, isn't doing it any favors.) Some of the songs are appealing, but taken as a whole, the acoustic guitar-based, soft rock arrangements all tend to sound the same. The element of satire on New Age woo is either too subtle (the hints of being a cult leader in the lyrics and video for "Solar Power") or overly broad and not that sharp ("Mood Ring".) But if I listened to it several more times, I feel like the songs might connect.

I'm too old and wise to listen to Lorde, and after reading about her discless CD scam, I will make double damn sure to never listen to her!

Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

[postpunkmonk.com]
For further rumination on the Fresh New Sound of Yesterday®

I read somewhere that folks in Japan still love their CDs. I guess that's a market of sorts.

Lorde’s a highly talented and gifted musician and HEROINE and MELODRAMA are both really good. I haven’t loved what I heard from the new record but I’ve been traveling and will have to get to it. But this discless CD packaging stuff is absolute nonsense.

I was at the little record store in my town yesterday and saw that he had a couple of Lorde's un-CDs in his new releases section. I made a snarky comment about them and he said he was kicking himself for ordering them - he pretty much just checked the boxes for however many vinyl copies he figured he could sell and how many CDs and had no clue he'd ordered a couple of empty boxes. He figures he's going to end up being stuck with them, since if any of his customers attempt to buy one, he'll make sure they understand they're not getting a disc - as opposed to the Targets of the world, who I'm sure will sell a few to inattentive customers who toss 'em in the cart without reading the sticker first, then get out to their car and discover to their chagrin that they've bought the proverbial box of air.

Lesson learned, he said. He needs to start reading the fine print, in case this becomes a trend.

On the plus side, he had a copy of the new box set reissue of Too Much Pressure by the Selecter -$5 cheaper than the Lorde box and actually contained three! CDs, which is far preferable to none. For some odd reason, Too Much Pressure was an album that neither me nor either of my brothers ever had a copy of, so I was pretty pleased to grab that.

breno Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> On the plus side, he had a copy of the new box set
> reissue of Too Much Pressure by the
> Selecter -$5 cheaper than the Lorde box and
> actually contained three! CDs, which is far
> preferable to none. For some odd reason, Too
> Much Pressure was an album that neither me nor
> either of my brothers ever had a copy of, so I was
> pretty pleased to grab that.

I really want that DLX RM of "Too Much Pressure!" But on the negative side, paying even more for air instead of three [three!] wasteful CDs will prolong both the life of the planet as well as Lorde's bank account. Surely the reason why we're all here?

Interesting factoid: Billboard will not count the disc-less CD in its counting for sales figures.

[twitter.com]

.@lorde's 'Solar Power' to debut at #3 on the US albums chart with 65K sold first week. Total includes disc-free box set, which won't be counted by Billboard.