So I picked up the Incredibles Soundtrack this evening. First of all, it’s not quite as good as I thought it would be. Fortunately there are a couple of songs that make the album worth the money (Off To Work and Life’s Incredible Again, most notably). But that’s beside the point. Over the past few months I have become increasingly more concerned about the music industry’s apparent lack of concern for their customers. First there was the Sony/BMG rootkit debacle, where Sony/BMG put malicious hidden software on a Van Zant (who?) CD, along with 19 other CDs. Add in the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)’s dogged determination to threaten and sue anyone who might be infringing on their intellectual property (including those who really aren’t, like LyricFind.com. Turns out that the RIAA was forced to back off and issue a formal apology, but not before the site was shut down.) and you have what seems to me to be a rather anti-consumer attitude.

This brings me to my point. Today I realized that none of this should have been a surprise. Anybody who has ever purchased a CD will be able to relate. Now, I have a feeling that the guys who design retail CD packaging are the designers of the Great Wall of China reencarnate. Is there any retailing packaging that is more difficult to get off of the product? First you have that outer cellophane wrap, which seems to be impervious to any method employed to tear, slit, or unfold it from the CD case. Then, if/when you get that off, you;re confronted with the additional challenge of pulling that little adhesive strip off of the top of the case. Here, I think the designers got a new idea. Unlike the outer packaging, the adhesive strip disintegrates with very little effort. Meaning that you end up pulling off a million little pieces of sticker instead of being able to pull it off in one piece. Very clever. You would think that a multibillion dollar industry would be able to figure out a slightly more consumer-friendly approach. For example, how about some of those little red pully tabs like they put on chewing gum packs? I mean, are you going to let Wrigley’s beat you out like that? Perhaps the motivation is to create such a sense of desperation in the attempt to unwrap the CD that when/if you finally get it open, you appreciate the music that much more. Who can say for sure? What I can say is this: that next time I want to buy an album, I’m looking on iTunes first.