Back in the 80's there were 2 manufacturers who were producing cassette media for the major labels. Have you ever wondered what this actually means? Well, here's the answer. For example, sometimes on cassettes you see one of two logos. So I'm going to restart this blog because recent research I've done has taught me quite a lot about collecting and variations of media types of albums. When Warner Bros got up to speed, they eventually did produce a domestic version of the album and it did, (although in smaller quantities), get a longbox release. That leads us to the least known and often overlooked gem in this story. If all the packaging was the exact same for all of these CDs, why is there another version of the longbox? That's why today, finding one of these intact is cool and why they can demand such a high price among collectors.īut now you're probably wondering. Many fans would cut their boxes up to create artwork for more traditional jewel cases. The cardboard was flimsy and easily ripped. Over time, these releases proved difficult to maintain. So no matter which CD you ended up with inside your longbox, the packaging itself. The tri-fold longbox and packaging were all printed and manufactured in the US. So if we've already identified three initial variations of the discs printed for this release, why are there only two actual longbox variations? If you have a copy of the domestic printed version of ATWIAD, this is what the disc would look like except the print would be in black, not green. It was printed in far fewer numbers then either version of the Target layout. Of the three non-domestically printed versions of this album, this is the most rare. This is a screen capture of a Google image search for the words 'Target CD'. Let me explain what a target CD actually is. You may have heard this term before and if you haven't. Not only was ATWIAD the first Prince album released by Warners on CD, it enjoys certain other distinctions as well. And I'll make that more clear as we learn about the contents of the packaging itself. How many variations are there? The answer is 2. Let's start with the actual longbox packaging. I'm going to give you a little bit of history and explain the ATWIAD longbox story in a way that will help everyone understand. There are so many different versions of this album on CD it can often get confusing and you may not be entirely sure what it is you actually have. At the time, CDs were still a new format and not as heavily embraced in the US as they were in Europe and Asia. As many of you remember 'Around The World In A Day' was the first Prince album to get a CD release.

Prince complete discography blogspot