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Apple, Reprise to offer blank, collectible LOTR CDs

updated 07:30 am EST, Tue December 16, 2003

Blank, collectible LOTR CD

Apple and Time Warner's Reprise Records label today will begin designed for fans to purchase the CD and use it to store a digital copy of the film soundtrack bought online, according to The LA Times: "As part of the promotion, the label will sell three different blank CDs outfitted with images from Time Warner's 'The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King' film. Apple's iTunes Music Store will offer the recordable CDs, which will sell for $5, exclusively today through Jan. 5....Label executives are pitching the blank CD as a collectible item. Reprise will press 1,000 copies of each of the three discs, and each will be numbered."

by MacNN Staff

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12/16, 07:40am | report spam | close Reply |
cool

yep.

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12/16, 08:16am | report spam | close Reply |
Now HERE'S a little mode

... that could easily catch on big time as yet another next step. Sell collector's blank CDs and let the public buy them to burn their music. Outstanding! Who's going to burn much more than something appropriate to such a disc? While most folks will stay pretty pure and only burn LOTR soundtracks (for example) to LOTR discs ('look at this disc *I* made!'), others will burn music that at least makes them feel close to LOTR, an audiobook, etc. No one's going to burn Justin and Reuben's albums to one (except maybe Scott Blum). The possibilities here are endless. Let a billion flowers bloom!!!

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12/16, 08:42am | report spam | close Reply |
quite a novelty item

but with the album being $11.99 on the iTunes Music Store, and the discs themselves costing $4.99 a piece, it becomes cheaper just to buy the actual album from Amazon for $14.99.

Seems like only true LOTR fans will do this... or something.

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12/16, 08:47am | report spam | close Reply |
dweebs

Only dweebs will do this. It's pointless. What part of "blank" are they missing? If they've got LOTR graphics on them, where do you put a label?

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12/16, 08:57am | report spam | close Reply |
Someone doesn't get it..

Uh, genius, you wouldn't use a label...

The data side is blank.

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12/16, 09:43am | report spam | close Reply |
Apple stupidity

strikes again. This is right up there with iPod engraving and $5000 iPod-ready snow jackets. Can we say -useless product-? Who the (bleap) is going to pay $5 for a BLANK CD?!? Especially since if I'm that desperate to have LOTR on my CDs, I could buy some friggin software for $10 that prints CD labels and print out thousands of different types?

I swear to god, someone has got to get Shiller off that crack he is smoking.

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12/16, 09:55am | report spam | close Reply |
Well I would

Well I'd like pro artwork on blank CDs bought from the net. Although seeing as I don't have the music store in the uk I actually just have to buy the CDs anyway.

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12/16, 09:58am | report spam | close Reply |
Re: Apple stupidity

There's already a couple of posts that disagree with you. Apparently you don't understand the term "collector's item".

BTW, lots of people have purchased iPod engraving, and the iPod snow jackets were $500, not $5000 - and I hear there will be more produced, so it apparently isn't as stupid as you thought.

I'm glad you don't run Apple.

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12/16, 10:14am | report spam | close Reply |
Um.

"Apparently you don't understand the term "collector's item"."

If you spend $5 to buy a blank CD, then you're an idiot, and nothing I can say will help you. There's a difference between a collectors item and something made solely to try to rip you off.

"I'm glad you don't run Apple."

I'm glad apple doesn't make any money, or gain any marketshare. They don't deserve to. At best, this is a extremely narrow market they seem to want to target. Apple goupies and rich people who don't care how much something costs. At worst, they just assume people are stupid enough to buy this. I guess they are, since you seem to think it's so great.

[rant] Please apple. Please sell a $100 apple-logo trashcan. It would be great. I would buy it, just because it's got the apple logo. Everybody knows that it must be the greatest trashcan ever, because it's made by apple. Here let me look inside. I'm sure it's got to have a gold-plated lining and everything. Oh wait. It's only got trash in it. Oh well. At least the apple logo looks cool. [/rant]

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12/16, 10:27am | report spam | close Reply |
Re: Um

I'm glad apple doesn't make any money, or gain any marketshare. They don't deserve to. At best, this is a extremely narrow market they seem to want to target. Apple goupies and rich people who don't care how much something costs. At worst, they just assume people are stupid enough to buy this. I guess they are, since you seem to think it's so great.

Man, you're getting over-excited over a freakin' $4 blank CD offer. You'd think they were converting their entire line-up of iMacs to a LOTR motif or something.

[rant] Please apple. Please sell a $100 apple-logo trashcan. It would be great. I would buy it, just because it's got the apple logo. Everybody knows that it must be the greatest trashcan ever, because it's made by apple. Here let me look inside. I'm sure it's got to have a gold-plated lining and everything. Oh wait. It's only got trash in it. Oh well. At least the apple logo looks cool. [/rant]

It all comes down to making money. If Apple can 'rip' enough idiots off with these CDs, or get enough idiots to buy a $100 trash can, then aren't they satisfying their goal of, I don't know, making money? Everything a company does or sells doesn't have to just target the widest audience possible. That's why the windows world is filled with so much c***. Why there were/are so many 'beige' boxes. Its the least offensive color out there. So they made computers that color.

You'd probably also dissed the iMac when it came out (a blue computer? who's apple selling computers to, just depressed people???) and the iPod (as I recall, it was blasted as overpriced, under featured, wanna-be device in a saturated market - just for those rich few music fans who could afford it).

Oh, and I say all this as someone who laughs at the thought of spending that much on a blank CD, who could give a flying leap about any of the movies (or the books for that matter) and as someone who's just so tired of hearing about how great they are. You people complain about Mac zealots. LOTR zealots are far worse!

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12/16, 10:46am | report spam | close Reply |
value

Would the "collector CD" be worth more left blank, rather than having 1 persons LOTR s*** burned on it.

Not everyone will want to have what another idiot had put there, and since you can't erase it, your s*** outta luck. They should have made them ReWritable CD's in the very least!! IDIOTS

Jobs sucks.

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12/16, 10:51am | report spam | close Reply |
Re: value

Yes, and comic books and baseball cards are worth more without any folds, tears, etc.

Of course, according to some pathetic Windroids here, they are only worth about 5 cents each, since they're only paper.

bryan.falchuk

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12/16, 10:59am | report spam | close Reply | delete
Not just any c***

Although not an LOTR guy, the point is to burn the LOTR music on it from the soundtrack, making it as collectable as a comic book since the content inside is what you expect it to be given the cover. However, it won't be sealed, which will be what ultimately hurts its collectability, if that's a word.

I actually think it's a neat idea. You guys also are all floggin Apple for this, but it was Warner/Reprise that approached Apple. Apple has zero exposure here, and is merely acting as a channel for Warner to sell a product.

That's like yelling at Target because you the Dove soap you bought there wasn't as good a value as the Dial soap you bought at the drug store.

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12/16, 11:00am | report spam | close Reply |
hehe

Just enough room to fit my Return of the King DIVX file.

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12/16, 11:10am | report spam | close Reply |
Expensive coaster

Be sure to have buffer overrun protection on! Those will make some pretty and expensive coasters...

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12/16, 11:12am | report spam | close Reply |
idiots

if people are dumb enough to buy a $500 Dell, how can anyone condemn Apple for offering a "Collectors Edition" series of black CD's?????

If anything, knock all the crazed LOTR fans who will buy it. Don't blame Apple for offering something that will actually sell.

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12/16, 11:41am | report spam | close Reply |
Hmmm...

Not as cool as the blank CDs that look like 45s.

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12/16, 12:19pm | report spam | close Reply |
Ease up

Is it silly? Kinda. But come on people, I think this is brilliant in a way. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

When hockey, baseball, football cards come out with that ultra glossed, foil wrapped, dna infused super rare card it is a crazed stampede to get one of the only 1,500 in the world!

Why should this be any different. If I read correct - they are only printing 1,000 of each. $5 each = $15 for something that MIGHT be worth something someday. Not a bad investment. Grow up. Not everything has to make sense, or cost a nickel.

You don't like it - don't frickin buy it! Why the h*** do you think companies make swag for everything - Hello Kitty pencils?? Cause someone buys it! That is why there is www.redlightrunner.com - so you can buy your $100 Apple trashcan. Now if it looked exactly like the icon ...

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12/16, 12:45pm | report spam | close Reply |
idiots

" if people are dumb enough to buy a $500 Dell, "

Really? So what kind of car do you drive? I am ready for a "If you are dumb enough to buy a cheap "

You are the idiot.

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12/16, 12:46pm | report spam | close Reply |
think holiday gifts

The point is that these can be used as GIFTs for friends/family. download the album, buy the CD-R, burn it and give it away as a numbered collectible. sounds spiffier than just buying the soundtrack from amazon...(and you get to keep a copy of the music for yourself)

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12/16, 01:13pm | report spam | close Reply |
Oooh

OOhh, Cool way to promote Bootlegs... Morons...

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12/16, 01:17pm | report spam | close Reply |
previous poster's point

is a good one. Buy them as gifts for friends and family... or better yet, if you are a collector, it makes more sense since you can decide on the design on the CD rather than the fixed one on the pressed album version.

Still sort of out there, if you ask me, but I can see someone buying them.

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12/16, 01:20pm | report spam | close Reply |
From a Music...

...Collectors point of view, paying five dollars for a CD and another twelve for the album, that is cheap change. I am not a LOTRs fan but I can promise that these CDs will only increase and sell on eBay by the ten folds. It is no different than me buying the same alble on both CD or vinyl, or even if it is on a different record label.

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12/16, 01:53pm | report spam | close Reply |
heh

So, let me see if I got this right... if you buy a $500 Dell you're an idiot. If you buy an Apple trash can, an Apple iPod jacket, an engraving for an iPod you're a "zealot" and an idiot. If you buy a cheap car you're..ahh..well it was inferred that you would be something negative anyway. And if you buy anything LOTR related you're a dweeb and possibly an idiot as well. I guess I'd go along with all of that. I'd definitely go along with the person who said the only people more annoying than Mac fanatics are LOTR nuts. Seriously, though, this has been one of the more entertaining reads on MacNN in some time. Still not sure what this sentence means, however "It is no different than me buying the same alble on both CD or vinyl, or even if it is on a different record label."

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12/16, 02:08pm | report spam | close Reply |
Guess I'm an idiot

Well, I think this is a very neat idea, even if financially it doesn't make sense ($5 CD + a couple bucks shipping and taxes + $12 for the music itself) ... the "Ring" CD looks very nice, and who knows, maybe one day this limited edition print will actually be worth something. If not, no big deal, I'm happy with it anyway :)

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12/16, 02:42pm | report spam | close Reply |
making consumers work

This idea, while innovative, is sort of silly. As a consumer, I really don't want to have to continue to work for something I paid for. Why would I go out and buy a blank and then download stuff to the blank, when I could just buy it with the music on it already? Is this the next wave of merchandising... selling your generic cover to someone and they download the contents? If I were a LOTR collector, I would want the highest quality original I could have, not compressed audio on CD-R. CD-R has less shelf life and AAC is diminished quality audio. Do the work for me please, I'm not a circus animal that's willing to jump through all these hoops.

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12/16, 03:03pm | report spam | close Reply |
Don't insult Apple

Why is everyone complaining about Apple selling these. Well, actually, Apple isn't selling them! Warner Brothers are! So quit insulting Apple for a product they don't even make!

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12/16, 03:20pm | report spam | close Reply |
Buy the CD

If you don't want to do the work, nobody is forcing you to buy the CDR. Go buy the retail CD... nobody is hurt by this product, so why bash it? And besides, it is suggested that you burn the LotR soundtrack to the CDR, but you can burn anything you want; perhaps a mix of songs from each of the three soundtracks? Perhaps an MP3 CD with all the LotR and LotR inspired music you can think of? Again, there is no reason to knock this.

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12/17, 05:29pm | report spam | close Reply |
I wonder

if the problem is that the computer world has cheapend what we think of as worthwhile. I myself discredited this at first, as being pretty stupid. I mean, it's only a blank CD with a lable that nearly anyone could make theirselves plastered on it. But as the point was made, we don't seem to have any problem with collectable baseball cards or the like.

My thinking is that it's because the computer world is a depreciating commodity. Your software and hardware is only worth as much as how new it is. Old computer stuff (discounting old mac models of course!) rarely is seen as having any value. I think what's started to happen is that as many real-world are turned into their digital form, the same stigma is place on them. Which would you think is more valuable, a "collector" jpeg image of a comic book page or the physical form of the same? Same thing with music- people have no problems downloading mp3s and justifying their actions, when obviously nobody would go into a store and blantantly shoplift a CD. It's like the digital form has less value to people. Maybe it's because deep down we know that everything is just data? How can you have something unique and valuable if it's just data?

It's an interesting problem.

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Apple, Reprise to offer blank, collectible LOTR CDs

updated 07:30 am EST, Tue December 16, 2003

Blank, collectible LOTR CD

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cool

Now HERE'S a little mode

quite a novelty item

dweebs

Someone doesn't get it..

Apple stupidity

Well I would

Re: Apple stupidity

Um.

Re: Um

value

Re: value

Not just any c***

hehe

Expensive coaster

idiots

Hmmm...

Ease up

idiots

think holiday gifts

Oooh

previous poster's point

From a Music...

heh

Guess I'm an idiot

making consumers work

Don't insult Apple

Buy the CD

I wonder

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