i can see having 2 tiers - the normal and the bonus dvd/extra's - so many cd's get released that way now anyway...but a cd without any packaging would look terrible in the store and consumers would have a hard time finding what they want through all the generic looking cd's.

and yeah, the retailers did for the most part pocket the extra $$ from universal's price drop. they knew that most people thought of the record companies as greedy bastards and figured people would keep on blaming them instead of the retailers that didn't adjust the prices as they should. luckily, where i am the major retailers did lower the prices and playd fairly...a rarity in the music biz it seems.