I just received a CD without the jewel case. It was shipped in a printed cardboard sleeve wrapped in shrinkwrap. It looks like the days of the jewel case are numbered. I guess the industry feels that the jewel case is too expensive to be included with the CD. I believe that we will all be forced to buy jewel cases from internet sellers.

This means that when I want to put a CD in my car I will have to put the CD in its cardboard sleeve which will wear out fairly easily.

Everybody lament now.

I was under the impression that this practice is an attempted throwback to vinyl (and LD?) sleeves, though financial motives are likely I'd think.

The last CD I bought was in cardboard and is now covered in scuffs from being in my car... I guess cd collectors will have to stock up on mini poly sleeves....

You can buy jewel cases for $37 for 60 (most expensive, cheaper when you buy in quantity). That equates to about 61 cents per jewel case. The price for the cardboard sleeve must be significantly lower than the jewel case or else the industry would not be going to them. All I am saying is that that I would not mind paying for the jewel case knowing that my CD's will last much longer with fewer scratches. I would not give the cardboard sleeve anywhere a lifespan when compared to the jewel cases

I guess we will have to buy the mini poly sleeves or jewel cases to protect our investment in CD's..

Conspiracy theory:
The studios are secretly hoping that CD's sold in cardboard will scratch and be unusable after a few years. This will then force customers to buy a new copy of their scratched CD's thus increasing the money flow to the studios. (ROFL).

You also have to consider that far less people are buying CDs these days, so it's not cost effective to pay for jewel casing for far less of a print run that they used to sell.

I know that CD sales are down due to the MP3 file formats. Personally, I download MP3 files from Amazon after I have bought an album. I then convert the MP3 files to the WAV format which I then burn onto CD-R discs. In this way, I have a permanent (?) CD that I can play on almost any disc player that I have. Of course, I do not get a jewel case for the CD-R disc; but, I place the CD-R into a CD changer thus not needing a jewel case. I mentioned above that I like to have a jewel case when I want to play the CD-R in my car. I have some CD-R's in my car that I made 4 years ago and they are still playable without a single skip.

It is too bad that the record companies have started eliminating jewel cases with CD's. To me, the cost must be very low for a jewel case when you compare it to the cost of a CD. Oh well, we the consumer will just have to live with it.

They’ve been doing this with various things for ages now. It started with CD singles in about 1991 with the Digipak and many competing designs trying to invent more recyclable packaging since a massive percentage of singles were recalled and destroyed as part of the record industry’s way of doing things and between the introduction of CD and it’s full adoption 8-10 years later a lot had changed when it comes to recycling as a part of environmental efforts.

I wouldn’t worry about it taking over everything though. CDs are fast becoming a collectors only format so there’s no point in doing anything to cheapen the product with most music. Some “LE”s use paper sleeve and advertise it as some special feature...yeah, I hate that. My advice is to makes your opinion know to the band or the publisher. That stuff helps sometimes.

I actually don’t have a problem with a sleeve type design as long as the thing is durable and doesn’t fit so tight you have to bend the paper to get the thing out. A think paper sleeve with coating and a tiny EC inside would work fine. Sure, plastic is more “durable” but I have a LOT of broken CD jewel cases.

I just unwrapped the CD I got yesterday (the one with no jewel case). I removed the CD and discovered that the CD has no album title and no artist listed. There is not even a listing of the songs on it. The only thing are two birds (red and blue) moving in a clockwise direction. This is the first CD i have ever seen that has no lettering on it. The CD is Letters from the Labyrinth by The Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

I wonder if this is a new trend.

Sad but its been going on for years.
I personally buy the first issue CDs as they are more valuable to CD collectors for reasons I won't go into.

My wife just bought 2 CDs and both were in all cardboard sleeves, I believe its cheaper with graphics and also less hands on of workers putting papers inside the
jewel cases, also less breakage in shipping.

I have literally hundreds of CDs with no lettering. It’s super super common and again, it’s a stylistic choice. Most early New Order releases have only catalog numbers or vague titles...and I don’t mean on the disc, I mean anywhere. I didn’t even know exactly what my own records were called when I was a teenager...perhaps this explains some things...

Good day Signofzeta, Rein-o, Dumbchemist, Elahrairrah & Sjoerg.

I have noticed a steady decline in the use of the CD Jewel Case, when purchasing CD Albums from the specialised online sellers over the last 5 to 10 years.

It came along first around 15 years ago however, then it was the exception and now the norm from most parties.
I have noticed that sellers through Amazon still sell in Jewel Cases though.

I don't mind though to be honest, as long as you look after your treasured purchases, like any other format then it will last.

Yes of course the Jewel Cases are preferred, it is what it is.

I hope you are all well?

Kind Regards

I must be living in an ivory tower. This is my first album (Letters from the Labyrinth) for me that has no lettering on the CD.

It is unbelievable what industry will do to save a few dollars. (Re: no CD case)

I guess I will have to buy some CD cases to keep for any new albums that I may buy in the future. (I don't buy that many CD's in a year) I will also use the CD cases for those albums that I download from Amazon.

TTFN for CD cases.

It is surprising you've never seen one up to now, the first one I came across was one of Neil Young's albums, that must have been about 15 years ago.

I think you could count on one hand the number of CD's I buy in a year. As I said, I usually buy the MP3 files, download them, convert them to WAV files and then burn them to a CD-R or a CD-RW disc. That is why I am considering buying CD cases in bulk so that I can keep the CD-R's in them. I am getting too many loose CD-R's that could get scratched. My next to last CD that I bought was Daft Punk, Musique Voi 1, 1993-2005. It came in a nice jewel case.

Ever noticed that DVD cases now have massive holes? If u subtract the shipping weight over millions of units it's a significant saving. Same as jewel cases, they're heavier than cardboard. I wish the industry adopted the superjewels but as usual the modern consumer demands a lower price over all else, race to the bottom..

Even when CDs come in a jewel these days there's a pathetic single sheet inside, no booklet.

Yeah, I have some BR cases that are barely even there. Cardboard would be more rigid.

I have some DVD's that came in a plastic case with only the DVD inside. No documentation is present. The manufacturer seems to try to get as much documentation on the back of the case so as to avoid adding anything inside.

That’s fine with me. Better than all those American DVDs that for some reason have a printed version of whatever is on the back inside of them. Total waste of paper, as far as I can tell.

All this just reminds me of how great LDs are. Most other formats frustrate me on some level more than LD does.

Amen signofzeta ............

At my local flea market there was a booth selling dvds with no case as such, simply the disc and cover art label in a plastic sleeve, anybody else encounter these?

Personally, I would steer clear of them. Those DVD's are more than likely bootleg copies. If you were to buy one, nothing would happen. The seller on the other hand is risking his neck, I prefer to buy my DVD's and BR's from a reputable seller like Amazon.