Interesting article on the CD LongBox

Another Rolling Stone article from 1991 was kinda interesting, thought I'd share it with ya'all.

Seems they were phasing out the "Longbox" and attempting to replace it with a more environmentally friendly solution.

Anyways, check it out if you're into music history lessons 

I loved them. They were made long so they would fit in the record bins... And they really aren't that bad and do not harm the environment. The paper industry is sustainable. We (my company) harvest our own trees that are grown for ONE purpose only - to make paper. By the time the "farm" is cut it is time to harvest a new set of trees. Not to mention it is biodegradable and plastic isn't. 

Anyway, I miss the long box. I used to save all of them because the art on them was cool.

Plastic is biodegradable . . . it just takes longer than expected

Plus there are biodegradable plastics.

But I was never a fan of long boxes for CDs.  Seemed superfluous to me.

Looks like the industry went with the "alpha keeper" (plastic reusable holders).  I do think it funny that they complain about the hazzard to the environment but nobody worries about all of those paper coffee cups that have to be several tons a year more than the cd long boxes ever were.

I liked the original long boxes with the album art, but after a while they just started making them plain and generic.

I don't recall europe having longboxes. I guess we just did't put cd's in the same bins as vinyl

Yeah, here in the US they made them long so they would fit in the record bins. Something else I have noticed is that jewel cases made from the 80's and early 90's are much better than the jewel cases now. They were heavier, more sturdy and less likely to crack. Now they use el-cheapo jewel cases or even worse digipaks. 

Wish I still had my long boxes, I had tons of them and saved them. I had them on my wall in my bedroom when I was a teenager.

And here I always thought the main reason they did these longboxes was to make it harder to steal a Cd.  Guess that wasn't the motivation.

I remember some of the long boxes.  I can remember some cassettes having them, too.  I don't remember, however, the CDs being in the record bins.  They took long enough to catch on here that they already had their own spots in the shelves when I remember seeing them.

alldatndensum wrote:

I remember some of the long boxes.  I can remember some cassettes having them, too.  I don't remember, however, the CDs being in the record bins.  They took long enough to catch on here that they already had their own spots in the shelves when I remember seeing them.

Not so much in places like Walmart or Kmart but the old Record Stores (Camelot, Record Bar, Turtle's, etc) still had "record bins" that were holding CD's in long boxes. Walmart & Kmart sometimes had cassettes and CD's in those cheap plastic long box things that were impossible to open.

They were kind of like this but they were made of soft plastic and you were supposed to be able to "squeeze" each side of the container and the tape (in theory, but never happening) would fall out of the case.



In reality you needed a chain saw to get them open.

And long boxes looked cool if you had a bunch from one band (this example isn't mine but the one I had was similar, I had long boxes for each Styx CD taped to my wall).

Cool   

Interesting, never heard of longboxes. How weird is our past…

Some had full cover art:





And some were just plain generic:


I'm actually surprised more people have never seen them. I got curious and was looking around ebay. Some CD's still sealed in long boxes are priced at over $200! The sad part is that many of the CD's are still in print in the $5 bin at Walmart! So they have them listed that high just for the box! Crazy!

They can keep them for $200!  I care more about listening to the music than holding on to cardboard nostalgia.