Whats Up with the BMG Pressings of Zappa Albums?
from David Goodwin: BMG, in case you don’t know, is an American “Record Club”; you know, one of those “17 CDs for half of a cent” type of deals. BMG, unlike Columbia’s clubs as far as I know, actually PRINTS its own CDs, however. Therefore, if you buy titles from BMG, they’re not going to be exactly the same as titles you buy in a store, and the Zappa albums are no exception. Some differences that I’ve found: • There is, of course, no green jewel case. Darn. • There’s a copyright notice on various places on the CD (usually the back, sometimes other places) that state the disc is from BMG Direct Marketing. • Occasionally, the back insert isn’t put in too well … it’s hard to explain, but occasionally the titles on the sides of the disc (where it says RYKO, the catalogue number, Zappa’s name in a weird font 😉 are cut off. I don’t know why this happens. • The art on the CD itself is sort of weird. At least in the case of the “early period” albums, the art on the CD is the same, but dar
