Remembering The Hype Sticker

The post below made me laugh, but hype stickers most definitely still exist. In fact, the are ubiquitous on vinyls these days. Now the point of the hype sticker might be dead, because they were originally meant to push sales and I doubt that helps anymore because folks still purchasing physical media were going to do it regardless of a sticker.

Did you know that album art was once so important that labels were afraid to use hype stickers for fear of obscuring the actual cover? I can’t fathom this now since most folks see album art as a tiny icon on a streaming platform vs. a large vinyl sleeve, but it is what it is.

History: graphic designer Craig Braun created the hype sticker and changed music packaging forever!

Also, because nothing makes sense anymore, vintage hype stickers are apparently worth a lot of money. I mean, I literally consider them trash since they are attached to cellophane, but apparently there’s a market for these old stickers, especially on eBay and Etsy.

I do have a rare, unopened first pressing copy of Poison’s Look What The Cat Dragged In on vinyl. I think it has a sticker on it. Perhaps I should see what it is worth!

(The Asking Alexandria album below is called Stand Up and Scream and it is so good. Circa 2009).