Real quick: is there a place where I can find whether or not a given album is being released as a digipak? I dislike jewel cases.

Reason I ask is because I just pre-ordered the albums Beyond by Omnium Gatherum and Saivon Lapsi by Eternal Tears of Sorrow and I'm rather hoping that they'll digipak these.

Discogs.

I checked on my desk for a digipack release and found Plaguewielder, I checked on Discogs and here's my version: http://www.discogs.com/Darkthrone-Plagu ... ase/387232

that's quite a unique preference haha. most people tend to prefer jewel case over digipaks despite the latter's nicer packaging.

That's mainly cause it's far easier to change out a jewel case incase something happens to it, like it gets cracked or the teeth holding the cd get broken. With a digi... teeth are broken? tough shit. They are easier to get damaged even with loads of care. they just don't hold up.

I keep mine in protective sleeves. Just like vinyl. Works fine.

and you can also replace broken CD holders in a digipack pretty easily. I bought some time ago a bunch of replacement inlays with the corresponding glue dots and works perfectly

The paper corners and bends wear out/crease/rip in digipaks, I dont think its ever been a problem of the plastic base. Still I like digi's better.

While I hate digipaks for their fragility, I think most people who prize them are "collectors" anyway, meaning they have the "object", and don't worry that much about the fragility (since most collectors make efforts to take care not to throw that stuff around, and usually just keep it stored).

That is, if those collectors are anything like me, they usually rip that shit and then store it, especially if it's a digipak... all the while being super-careful not to breathe on the packaging or disc itself too hard.

Then again, maybe I'm wrong. Either way, I always rip lossless copies of CD's. I much prefer playing lossless rips of CD's and keeping the physical media in storage until I need to reference or re-rip it or something. I play all my music that's on the computer through my stereo system anyway, so it's really not any different from playing the physical CD (certainly not with my crappy stereo system, anyway. I can't tell a difference).

3M make this wicked clear mounting tape, i use that to fix them, just 4 small squares and it's all done
of course if the spindle is rooted it won't fix that though...

I'm entirely in the 'nicer packaging' camp as a collector of physical media. If it has a digipak release, I want that for preference.

Getting way off-topic, but you know what really sucks is having the sort of cases you'd never buy in bulk... like smoky-black plastic cases (Bright Eyes - Digital Ash In A Digital Urn) or clear neon yellow-green (a Flux of Pink Indians bootleg I own).

How am I gonna replace that shit without buying a minimum of, like, 50 of those cases?!

Yea I don't trust pulling the plastic off the cardboard without it ripping. esp with older ones were it's ripping anyway already.

the glue looks like hot glue gun glue, i'd say if it was heated again it'd soften right up.

Well, oddly enough, digipaks have been more durable for me. Jewel cases are always breaking with very minimal force. Most of the time they just arrive broken. Mostly the CD holder finger thingies or the portion of the jewel cover that connects to the portion holding the CD.

I've had countless (hundreds) of Jewels case breaks, but not one problem with a digipak. Perhaps I'm an exception.

I store all my digipaks in plastic sleeves because it takes very little for the cover to be damaged when getting jostled around on a shelf. Jewel cases may crack, but they are easily replaceable and at least they protect the artwork.

One thing I hate in jewel cases is those case lids with the two little plastic dot-prong things that are meant to keep the insert from sliding out... they ALWAYS seem to end up leaving hideous dents in the inserts... It sucks spending money on something you find online only to notice that the insert has these ugly indents pressed into it. Most, if not all, cases now have bars instead of those prong things, but I still have several albums that use those, and I am pretty particular about using label/period-specific cases for older stuff (like, some old Warner cases have the logo embossed into the plastic, for instance).

It's especially frustrating when it comes to rare/expensive items. I've resorted to storing jewel cases upside down (so the spine faces the floor when stored in a box or something).

I really need to look into some small polyvinyl sleeves for digipacks (and even regular jewel cases, since those get scuffed). On that note, I need to get some thick PV sleeves for most of my vinyl, too... and better shelving... and a million other stupid things...

Being a music collector is ruining my life.

http://bagsunlimited.com/

This site has everything you're looking for, and more...

ha ha ha excellent

i've seen dots, bars and 'teeth' [looks a bit like a shark fin i suppose]
i'd prefer a full length bar like on the other edge over the smaller dots etc

The teeth one is particularly destructive hahaha. And I hate it when my nails are too short to pull them out!

And while I like to collect digipaks, I hate those that have booklets that are way too thick. I remember tearing my Anthelion digipak (front cover) 10 minutes after buying it because the booklet was so tightly packed inside the side where it was slipped into.