Common problems call for simple solutions, according to Mark Toblosky, VP Sales and Marketing for National Media Services, while customers love the disc sleeve concept as being lighter, ‘greener’, and more cost-effective, there was one thing that many of them have been asking for. NMS has aimed to provide that with a new packaging concept.
“A lot of people love the jacket - it’s light, it’s easy to ship, it’s our biggest-selling item,” Tobolsky told Digital2Disc. “But there was one complaint - the disc can fall out. We hadn’t seen anything that would solve that problem, so we decided to solve it ourselves.” The result was the soon-to-be-launched Magic Jacket; one the outside it looks like a normal disc sleeve; even on the inside it’s hard to see the specially designed tabs that do indeed stop discs from falling out.
NMS provides disc manufacturing and packaging service for, primarily, indie music labels so cost-effective short-run orders are its main business, and it has built up its client base on the back of a virtual on-demand service. “Less than 10% of the musicians out there make a huge amount of money,” said Tobolsky, “and downloading is increasing, but people still like to have a physical copy.”
Given the importance of budget, NMS is going to be offering the Magic Jacket for the same price, said Tobolsky: “This is a unique design, but we are not going to charge a premium for it. We have sent it to some of our long-standing customers - some of whom can be very picky! - and the feedback has been ‘Awesome!’ from all of them.”
