And more challenges remain. Over the years, big box stores such as Best Buy have considerably scaled back their space for box sets. Beyond the holiday shopping season, the stores rarely promote them. Managers say they're not sure if anything can reverse the digital trend.
"The demand for box sets isn't as great because most people are going toward downloads on iPods," says Leslie Boyd, who supervises the Best Buy in Woodlawn.
He says the store devotes between 2 percent and 5 percent of its shelf space to box sets.
"I don't see a lot of focus on promotion of box sets, because we're a high-volume store and try to sell things that are in great demand," Boyd says. "The audience for the box set is different. It's not the younger, urban trendsetters under 30 who buy CDs. With box sets, you're talking about proven music in quantity that has an established audience. Those people are usually over 30 and buy box sets as gifts during holidays. We see more of that traffic then."
Although box-set releases overall are fairly slim this year compared with years past, the configuration shows no signs of disappearing. Labels are combing their archives and even reaching out to artists and fans to unearth rare additions to the music. All the components - the visual, the hip memorabilia - can still pull fans into the musical world of their favorite artists.
"The pressure to be good business people and artistically sensitive purveyors of this art has never been stronger," says Legacy's Block. "Virtually no decisions are being made without the complications of commerce. But there are still standards we want to uphold for the artists and the consumers. Those standards are always high."
