What are they thinking?

[stoney]

What are they thinking? Did they NOT see the handwriting on the wall? The CD is dead!!!! period why waste any resources on that technology?

I can not help but think digital music is about as "GREEN" as you can possibly get for music distribution. Wayyyyyyyyyyyyy beond packaging!! think of transportation and realated items,bricks and morter ,heat/cooling,etc.

This amazes me!!!!!
They obviously have no clue!!!!

TAKEN FROM
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070619/...m/packaging_dc


Down-to-earth indie labels adopt green packaging

LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - There wasn't a CD manufacturing operation in the entire country that satisfied the eco-friendly needs of Cloud Cult leader Craig Minowa. So he built his own.

Minowa started Earthology Recordings on a farm an hour north of the Twin Cities in Minnesota. From the geothermal and wind power that runs the farm, to the recycled CD cases with soy ink-engraved packaging that come with every order, Earthology is striving to become the most environmentally aware CD manufacturing/replication business on the planet.

So it's no surprise that in his downtime from touring with his critically adored psych-pop outfit, Minowa fields calls from unsigned artists and indie and major labels. Often, Minowa says, there's only one factor that stops an act or a business from going the green route.

"Unfortunately, it does come down to a financial thing," he says. "If the eco-friendly stuff is 3 to 5 cents more per unit, most of the major labels will shy away from it, since those pennies add up. If it were affordable to do it the environmentally friendly way, then everyone would be doing it."

Plenty of smaller labels can relate, but more are seeing eco-friendly measures as a worthwhile expense. Brady Lahr of Los Angeles-based Kufala Recordings invested nearly $15,000 to create his own biodegradable shrink-wrap by partnering with Prizm, a maker of transparent cigarette paper (yes, you can smoke it).

PATENT PENDING

But it wasn't a completely altruistic move. Lahr filed for a patent, and Kufala stands to gain if other labels or artists start using his shrink-wrap -- not to mention the publicity and marketing opportunities it now affords him.

"Every day you turn on the news there's something about climate change or global warning or ways to make the world a greener place," Lahr says. "If we're not doing that in business, we're not looking out for the interest of our customer, which is the No. 1 priority in any business."

And don't talk to Seattle label Sub Pop's Internet guru, Andrew Sullivan, about the cost of going green. "That's a cheap way of looking at it," he says. "It depends on whether you're thinking long-term expense or short-term expense."

At Sullivan's urging, the indie powerhouse made news last year when it became the first record label to be certified "green-e," thanks to its purchase of vouchers from the Bonneville Environmental Foundation to subsidize the use of renewable energy. It wasn't a huge cost to the label, says Sullivan, who asked that the specific dollar amount not be printed, but it's safe to say that it's less than $10,000.

Proving that it wasn't just a marketing stunt, Sub Pop went a step further. The label recently did away with jewel-case CD advance copies to switch to plastic-free, recyclable paperboard.

"What we found out is that even though it costs 30 cents more to do the actual packaging, it costs 25 cents less to ship it," Sullivan says. "Plus, it creates less waste, and that's radical."

Others have gone a step further. Matador and Beggars Group have shifted to all-digital advance copies, a cost-cutting and eco-savvy move. Sullivan says Sub Pop isn't ready to go that far yet, but technological and consumer advances may eventually force the music business in a completely pro-environment direction, even as green costs come down.

"A couple of decades ago, organic foods were a niche market and not very accessible," Minowa says. "Now, organic foods are even in Wal-Marts. In being so much more accessible, it receives the distribution that makes it more affordable. I think we'll see the same thing with environmentally friendly CDs on the market. That is, if digital downloads don't take them over first."

Reuters/Billboard


This is a very LAME excuse!!! meaning too lazy to try new methods.
Others have gone a step further. Matador and Beggars Group have shifted to all-digital advance copies, a cost-cutting and eco-savvy move. Sullivan says Sub Pop isn't ready to go that far yet, but technological and consumer advances may eventually force the music business in a completely pro-environment direction, even as green costs come down.

[Lightning]

I don't know. I'm ambivalent about this. You're right, time to move on...

on the other hand, it's getting so much easier for smaller acts to create their own label these days that it's good to see greener alternatives that aren't too much more expensive. And I like having a hard copy of my music in case something happens to the file.

And if we got rid of cds entirely, how could I design cd case inserts anymore?

[TheBalance]

Originally Posted by Lightning

I don't know. I'm ambivalent about this. You're right, time to move on...

on the other hand, it's getting so much easier for smaller acts to create their own label these days that it's good to see greener alternatives that aren't too much more expensive. And I like having a hard copy of my music in case something happens to the file.

And if we got rid of cds entirely, how could I design cd case inserts anymore?

I like the idea of having a hard copy on hand. Hard Drives crash...files get lost...etc. etc.
CD case (jewel case) design is important. There must be an easy way to get those cellophane wrappers off.