Ongoing History Daily: Aw, such quaint collectibles

It used to be that bootlegs and promo items were the most collectible things a music fan could look for. Now people are looking for multi-media collectibles.

These are computer programs that are usually issued in very limited quantities within the music industry, but a few of them found their way into the hands of the general public.

For example, there is a REM program for Macs out there called Monster that features a snippet of the song “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth,” tour dates, and a cartoon. Back in the 90s, collectors sold them on old 5 ¼ inch floppy discs for to 60 bucks each. They might be worth something today, but you’ll need one of those ancient disc drives.

Same thing for a Smashing Pumpkins floppy called Screen Raver, which was nothing more than a Pumpkins screen saver or WIndows. Collectors sold that one about 30 bucks back in the day. Good luck getting that to run on a modern PC.

Check out yesterday’s post on the CD longbox.