I am sometimes surprised so see certain titles in "original shrink". Does anyone know definitively when US record companies started to shrink wrap albums?
This is a quick summery. If you google your question you’ll get several forums that discuss it with old heads that worked in stores when it started which varies from late 50s to early 60s. It wasn’t an all at once thing and took a while to become the norm since record stores didn’t want it as people used listen stations for new releases as well as only putting sleeves out on the rack and keeping records behind the counter. (Common knowledge, I know). It seems to have started when non record stores (Woolworth’s etc) started selling records and needed them protected as they were just on an open rack with no attendant. It’s also funny one original method was to shrink wrap the record itself but not the cover. I’ve found a couple of these over the years still sealed (on the inside lol) and wondered WTF!
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