| alibat 14.06.2005 07:22 |
Last week I recieved my copy of the triple LP from Queenonline. I have to say I'm disappointed. Why? It was only in a single sleeve. Yes, it is the lovely thick vinyl that good albums always used to be made of until the late 1980s. But why be stingy with the packaging? Those of us old enough to have started our collections before CDs came out will remember the feeling when you bought a new LP. You felt like you'd got something of real value. The packaging was always miles better than CDs. Double albums (and many single ones like ANATO, ADATR and NOTW) were presented in lavish gatefold sleeves. The pratice of always using single sleeves (and usually cheap, thin vinyl too) started when record companies really started pushing us to switch to CDs. Although I know that CDs have a clearer sound, I do still miss the old records (my husband is sure the weight of my old record collection is damaging the floor in the spare room). Am I the only one to think this way? It is also not true that CDs last so much longer. My copy of Queen II has started jumping and needs replacing. I have had this for about 10 years. My vinal copy (in a nice gatefold sleeve) I got around 1978/1979, so it had 16 years of active service before I got the CD. Sure it crackles a bit here and there but it's not totally unplayable like the CD. |
| onevsion 14.06.2005 08:14 |
I totally agree with you! I ordered the 3 LP and will recieve it in a few days. When i saw it had no gatefold i was a bit disappointed as well. I have the same feel about vinyl as you have. Love the gatefold sleeves, the artwork (wich looks much better on a 12" record than on a 5" cd), the smell of the vinyl.... |
| Penetration_Guru 14.06.2005 13:17 |
I think had it been a double album, it may have been a gatefold. |
| Tero 14.06.2005 13:42 |
Penetration_Guru wrote: I think had it been a double album, it may have been a gatefold.They could have just as easily made it a three-part sleeve... :/ The previous vinyl I bought before MK was the fabric version of Manic Street Preachers' Lipstick Traces, which was three discs in a gatefold sleeve. |
| RohemianBapsody 15.06.2005 03:31 |
I was going to but the LP, but as it is not a gate fold I have changed my mind. I was hoping that as you opened the album there would be a full picture of the stage and lighting. |
| Mr Drowse 15.06.2005 05:53 |
I was hoping that as you opened the album there would be a full picture of the stage and lighting. Same here :( |
| Jjeroen 15.06.2005 07:39 |
Yup, me too... Disappointed to find out it was only a single sleeve. The innersleeves are nice though! I too had hoped for a nice, high-quality triple gatefold -like the Hendrix vinyl-reissues for example-, maybe a booklet, or very very maybe even a little bit of hope for a box-kinda-thing... But I think this is a money-issue... Obviously they chose to keep the thing as cheap as possible, to make it more marketable... |
| RohemianBapsody 15.06.2005 08:25 |
jeroen wrote: Yup, me too... Disappointed to find out it was only a single sleeve. The innersleeves are nice though! I too had hoped for a nice, high-quality triple gatefold -like the Hendrix vinyl-reissues for example-, maybe a booklet, or very very maybe even a little bit of hope for a box-kinda-thing... But I think this is a money-issue... Obviously they chose to keep the thing as cheap as possible, to make it more marketable...But I would imagine only current fans will buy the album, all the other sales will be in CDs. If they had made it a gate-fold more fans would probably have bought it. |
| Jjeroen 15.06.2005 09:05 |
...true, but they also would have had to fork out about a tenner more... But I agree; this is obviously a release especially for the collectors. Therefore they would happily pay more for a nicer package... (I would...) But as usual QP hopes that more not-necesarrely-collector-fans will also buy this one if they keep he price down... |
| Tero 15.06.2005 11:54 |
Non-collectors are not going to buy it anyway, because vinyl is an obsolete format, and the set costs more than twice as much as the cd. The pressing will be very limited (10,000?), and the only way for QP to make any real profit from it is to minimise the manufacturing costs. If they get 5p more per record for releasing it in a plain sleeve, than that's what they're going to do. I'm sure Brian appreciates the extra £50 he gets... :P |
| RohemianBapsody 16.06.2005 03:31 |
I think they could have made it a gate fold for an extra quid, sold a lot more and therefore made more money. IMO it would not cost a lot more to make a gatefold LP. I do not remember NOTW costing more than a normal LP when it came out. |
| Jjeroen 16.06.2005 05:15 |
True, but we are talking THREE discs here. And nowadays both production and exploitation of vinyl is a lot more expensive then in the time it was still a standard medium. Same goes for the production of sleeves. Simply because that too is not standard production anymore and thus more expensive to create. But again: I would have happily forked out an extra tenner for a nice, solid cardboard triple gatefold! |
| RohemianBapsody 16.06.2005 08:25 |
I dont't think we have much cahnce of that, we have more chance of JD appearing at Wembley. |
| Tero 16.06.2005 10:50 |
jeroen wrote: True, but we are talking THREE discs here. And nowadays both production and exploitation of vinyl is a lot more expensive then in the time it was still a standard medium. Same goes for the production of sleeves. Simply because that too is not standard production anymore and thus more expensive to create. But again: I would have happily forked out an extra tenner for a nice, solid cardboard triple gatefold!We're talking about 4 square feet of cardboard more for each sleeve, and hiring a few more guys from eastern Europe (or China) for a week to glue the things together by hand. I'd be VERY surprised if that would cost the record company a total of £100,000. :P |
| Roger's Beard 16.06.2005 13:24 |
I've ordered this from my local record shop and they still haven't been able to get it. If you've all ordered from QOL, did it come damaged at all - that's why I didn't want to order from QOL - I want a perfect package, not a sleeve that's been bent to bits through the post. please let me know. thanks |
| Jjeroen 16.06.2005 13:57 |
Tero wrote:It's not the material that's expensive, it's the production process. Triple gatefolds need a different machine that is not standard in recordfactory's anymore.jeroen wrote: True, but we are talking THREE discs here. And nowadays both production and exploitation of vinyl is a lot more expensive then in the time it was still a standard medium. Same goes for the production of sleeves. Simply because that too is not standard production anymore and thus more expensive to create. But again: I would have happily forked out an extra tenner for a nice, solid cardboard triple gatefold!We're talking about 4 square feet of cardboard more for each sleeve, and hiring a few more guys from eastern Europe (or China) for a week to glue the things together by hand. I'd be VERY surprised if that would cost the record company a total of £100,000. :P Sure there are ways around to do it. Maybe even to do it 'cheap'. But in any case it will be more expensive. Be it a little bit more or a lot more, that does not matter; QP chose THE cheapest option ... |
| kyassor 17.06.2005 17:58 |
jeroen wrote: QP chose THE cheapest option ...The cheapest option would have been not to release it on vinyl |