3" CD Blisterpack
Garbage had been established on their first album as an act who regularly released special editions of their singles; their first six singles had each seen a specially packed 7" vinyl format released in embossed aluminium, rubber, hologram die-cut rain-effect card, perspex, cloth and with a lenticular image mounted on ripple-effect card respectively. The band and their UK label were keen to continue using special packaging for the singles from Version 2.0; however new rules issued the previous year from UK chart compiler CIN had forbidden the chart inclusion of sales of any singles packaged elaborately. Mushroom kept in mind that they had lost money on the pressing of every single 7" they released; Garbage were also aware of the potential trap of repeating themselves on their second album.
In 1996, while the band had been on tour in Japan, they had seen 3" CD singles on sale in record stores. "They were packaged in these beautiful little boxes," Manson recalled later, "It was all very minimalist and absolutely beautiful, and we wanted to do something that was very beautiful and minimalist". When Mushroom made inquiries during the design stage, they discovered that record stores refused to rack them because they were not used to stocking singles in Snap-Pack boxes. The art designer for the project, Ade Britteon, suggested packaging the discs in pre-formed plastic sealed onto a 5" card blister, similar to how electrical batteries are displayed, so that the disc could be popped through the back of the packaging.
Garbage eventually released five singles in this manner; starting with "Push It" and ending a year later with "You Look So Fine". Despite the collectable nature of the format, the fact that at the time very few European artists pressed 3" CDs and that the vacuum-packaging cost more to produce than a standard CD single meant that Mushroom did not repeat the format for their other artists.
Read more about this topic: Push It (Garbage Song)