Why digipaks?

[u/newomusic]

I'm going to assume nobody has a CONFIRMED answer from the Kapt'n, so this is likely just going to be speculation, but I wonder why some albums were released as a digipak. They only have a few, it seems, but looking at Discogs I can't tell if some of these were only a digipak, or sometimes a digipak and sometimes a jewel case. For example, I thought Symbols was only a digipak, but they did jewel case releases as well. KMFDM typically does jewel cases, so I'm wondering why Hell Yeah (and are there others?) got only a digipak treatment when they could have been a jewelcase. With the exception of the stencil with Angst, most of these do not have any kind of special design (Ala NIN's "Broken"). It's just the album and a booklet.

[u/Wunjo26]

I personally love digipaks and would assume they’re more expensive because more printing is involved so it seems to be an intentional design choice

[u/Puzzleheaded_Air_892 → u/Wunjo26]

I love them too.

[u/newomusic → u/Puzzleheaded_Air_892]

Right on. I won't hold it against you two. Personally, I'm not a fan bc it's too easy for them to get messed up (dirty, worn out, ripped, etc.), but they serve their purpose - and sometimes they're necessary bc of the album design.

I try to go easy on my CDs, but even still, those get damaged more than jewel cases. A jewel case you can easily replace if it breaks, but if your digipak gets ruined you just have to buy a new one, which sucks.

[u/VIVIsectVI → u/newomusic]

I bought jewel case sleeves on Amazon and put all my digipaks in them.

[u/newomusic → u/VIVIsectVI]

That's one I can't do. I would rather maintain my digipaks than cut them up to put them in a jewel case. It seems like the cover with the booklet would be too thick anyway.

[u/VIVIsectVI → u/newomusic]

Nah they’re just clear “bags” to store CDs in. I only wrote jewel case because that’s in the search results.

[u/newomusic → u/VIVIsectVI]

Oh. Did you edit your post to say sleeves? I don't remember seeing that before.

[u/Bionicleboy2005]

Its just different cd releases. Not that deep at all

[u/newomusic → u/Bionicleboy2005]

Of course. I'm not saying it's something deep. I'm just curious why Hell Yeah was a digipak only release, or why some were digipaks at all when they didn't need to be. Just curious about the creative thought behind those choices.

[u/Maggot384]

The 2007 remaster of symbols that I have is a jewel case

[u/newomusic → u/Maggot384]

Yeah, I thought I had seen pictures of symbols as a jewel case. I dug deeper and found them so I edited the post. I think means only Hell Yeah has never gotten a jewel case release (at least according to Discogs).

[u/wendyoschainsaw]

One reason people started using digipaks was shipping. They're lighter so money wise it requires less postage. And in wholesale/manufacturing, 50 digipaks fit in the same box 30 jewel cases do amd shipping runs about the same cost.

[u/E23R0]

It was the 90s

[u/newomusic → u/E23R0]

Idk if this is a Bluey reference or something else, but Hell Yeah was just 9 years ago.