Hello,

I'm new here, and quite new to the whole Mini LP thing too. I was wondering if releases like these three are considered Mini LPs:
http://tommi.myartsonline.com/austra.html
http://tommi.myartsonline.com/skinny.html
http://tommi.myartsonline.com/yanqui.html

The gatefold packaging is made, I'm pretty sure, in the same style as the Vinyl release, but I'm not sure if they are exact replicas.

I could go on at length about this (and have in bits and pieces all over the site).... The simple answer is "Yeah - I guess so. Mainly because they are the right size and look and feel etc".

A purist would say that unless it was

(a) originally exclusively released on vinyl (and perhaps 8 track, cassette, reel-to-reel - or at least before CD was the predominate media)

(b) is an exact replica of the original cover (except for the current Japanese release ID)

...then perhaps not.

Most people are somewhere between the two.

I've added a few that are no worse than your 3. Like this one Brian Eno's Drawn from Life which was only released as a promo and has a cover that only loosely resembles what was predominantly a CD released.

Thanks for asking - if you'd like to add them to the site give me a yell.

I think that #2 and #3 are not square. All 3 seems to be lower size than a standard Mini LP. And I don´t know what albums are replicating... so at first sight they don´t seem to be true Mini LPs. IMMO.

I have quite a lot of this type of CD/packaging. I would never have thought to include them on this site and I don't think they should be.

ConradWZ wrote:

QUOTE:
I have quite a lot of this type of CD/packaging. I would never have thought to include them on this site and I don't think they should be.

Yes, my intention was never to add them here. I was asking because there was this whole debate on another site (rateyourmusic.com) about what this packaging type should be called. Now I was very much against the idea of calling these digipaks, as they are not digipaks in the traditional sense and I want to seperate these from digipaks. The only other options outside of digipak that could apply in this case on their site are "cd sized album replica" . Now they do have a "gatefold" option, which I thought would be best, but that damn site requires you to use the "gatefold" tag ONLY with the "cd sized album replica" tag.

So I kind of thought to ask the experts whether it was OK to call these "cd sized album replicas"

I do have a few real original Japanese Mini LPs (most Zeppelin albums, the good Metallica albums, In the Court of the Crimson King and Ziggy Stardust) and will be adding more as soon as my budget allows and I do know the difference compared to these. Probably should've been more clear with my intention here.

So what do you think? Can you call these "cd sized album replicas" and be correct? Should they add a new option for this type of release/packaging (and what would that be?)? Or should I just give up and start calling these digipaks (never)?

I own all The Sound cardboard sleeve reissues, but are cd sized not mini lp sized. So I never considered them as Mini LPs. They are special editions and some of them very hard to find and is one of my all time fav bands. The best of the 80s UK bands in my opinion. But this is not a mini lp.

The same goes for the recent Neil Young live albums, are cardboard sleeves but not Mini LP. Or for Arcade Fire´s 2 first albums, or Bjork Greatest Hits, or the 2 Television albums (japanese edition or not - I own one of each).

If Sam wants to add a section for these cardboard sleeve CD sized albums for me is OK but never mix with the Mini LPs.

Domingo

Just so I'm clear - these are the same height and width as a jewel case and a digipak (ie. they are not square) and they look like (or are at least styled after) the original vinyl LP? Is that correct?

Yes, Sam. But most of them have been modified, not being an exact replica of the original vinyl. By example Television´s Marquee Moon or Adventure in these editions are gatefold dedigned but the originals weren´t. And some similar happens with The Sound Albums. They have created atractive sleeves but not a replica of the originals the same being based on them.

We have more examples of new releases that aren´t exactly as the originals but they use exactly the mini lp format. By example the The Pretentenders 4 first albums special editions by Rhino.

So I think that the difference is plain clear, The Pretenders ones are Mini LPs the same if now are presented in trifold or gatefold format, and the Television, The Sound, Neil Young (At Filmore East, Massey Hall, Living with War or Chrome Dreams II -this one is a bit higher than CD but still not square-), Bjork Greatest Hits, Arcade Fire´s Funeral or First Recordings, Damien Rice´s 9, Pearl Jam´s live official bootlegs, aren´t.

There is another different case, the one from the The Comsat Angels rereleases, they are squared but 1 centimeter less than the usual Mini LP format, for that reason I don´t included them here, the same than The Sound´s "The Dutch Radio Recording" series. We can´t include here each cardboard edition, most of them are a simple sleeve to acomodate the CD in a cheap way (Not the case of Comsat Angels, of course).