Longboxes

I come to you with a non Top40 specific question, but maybe you can help me shed some light on this.

My question is regarding the longboxes compact discs used to come in to get the customer's attention in the early days of the format.

On my first visit to the USA (1987) longboxes seemed to be fully established as a marketing tool. And basically every new CD I bought came in it.

We all know that they later gradually disappeared, I think around 1994-1995.

I know that even though the compact disc format didn't pick up massively until later, it was available to the public before 1987 when I first visited the US, but approximately what year could you easily find them in record stores?

And here is my doubt: were the first distributed compact discs put in longboxes, or was this later implemented?

From day one, Long boxes were there. Either in a printed cardboard box, or
a clear 2 section blister pack. The clear one was used heavily first to display
the shiny rainbow look of the brand new "CD format" in one half, and the CD
label when in the top half. They also were used as a theft deterrant before
the magnetic security strip was implememented. It also helped the transition
from LP to CD by having them big enough to fit in LP shelves.
I remember going to Tower and seeing a large trash can next to the register
so people just tore open the discs so they can play them in their cars right
away. Then they faded out with environment concerns, but are still being
used today in warehouse stores like Costco. Mostly generic boxes, but some
custom ones.

Edited by anthology123

I seem to recall the clear plastic blister pack was the sole initial format, at least the primary one, but cardboard longboxes followed quickly, and were certainly well established by 1986. All my first CDs were in the blister packs, and I think I bought my first player in 1985, the very first Sony DiscMan, a heavy, all-metal portable player, for a hefty $300! It still amazes me you can get a portable CD player for under $30 these days.

I well remember the celebrity environmental movement of the late '80s/early '90s, when some artists insisted their full-length CD releases be issued in digipacks, and the longbox was gradually phased out in the early-to-mid-1990s. I remember seeing a Tower Records employee standing there removing CDs from longboxes and throwing the longboxes away, as they made their transition to a longbox-less store.

Yeah, I like the longboxes at Costco. A few months ago I saw (and I regret not picking up now) what I think may have been a longbox twin-pack with Streisand's Guilty and Guilty Pleasures albums... and somewhere on the back of the longbox it referred to the new album as "Guilty Too." I guess the title was changed at the last minute, but they didn't scrap the longboxes.

Edited by Brian W.