And now for something completely different!
I’m sure to be put in the Music Collector’s Hoarder Hall of Fame for this but this blog is all about CD longboxes.
Longboxes? Boxes you say???
Let me elaborate.
Back in the day, oh say ions ago in the 1980s at the birth of the compact disc, store shelves were full to the brim with CDs that were being sold inside these elaborate boxes with the album cover art on them.
They were usually long and thin thus the term longboxes.
You see, retailers wanted to have a way to shelve CDs without them being easily stolen – there was actually a time where it was worth selling stolen CDs!
Anyway, this led to the first few years of CDs, say from 1983 to 1991 or so, being sold in these beautiful (to me) boxes which seemed like an extension of the CD artwork.
In the early 1990s a lot of artists like Sting and U2 campaigned for more eco-friendly packaging as they viewed the longboxes as harmful to the environment and the music industry complied and out went the CD longbox.
Not that I blame them really. Most normal people threw these boxes away and really it did save me from hoarding several dozen more lol.
Of course for posterity the hoarder collectors come to the rescue once again and you can now gaze upon what was once an industry standard.
To me these longboxes are much like the picture sleeves that came on 45s so I think they’re well worth saving.
Take a gander at the boxes I’ve saved (below).
Purdy aren’t they?:
Records, CDs and Music: 