If You Read Nothing Else...
i've seen many huH CDs posted for sale, with little to no information about the album, save for the cover and CD number. for example "Huh CD 4".
THIS IS NOT ENOUGH TO POSITIVELY IDENTIFY THE CD.
as you will read below, without the tracklist, or the catalog number from the side of the CD case, you won't be able to tell which of the 5 versions you have. this is NOT just a problem for people who are actually looking for a SPECIFIC huH CD, but rather who in their right mind would buy a compilation CD without knowing what artists or songs were actually on them?
at the very least, you need to put EITHER the catalog number from the side OR the tracklist from the back or inside cover (the inside cover is more detailed). of course, having both would be preferable. but if you don't want to type out the whole tracklist, at least include a picture of it, or a picture of the side of the case with the catalog number. and even if you don't have the case, the catalog number is actually stamped inside a rectangle on each disc as well!
Amazon does not list all of the huH CDs on it's site, and there is no easy way around that, unless you are an authorized Amazon Seller that can add new CDs to Amazon. but you can always just add yours to, for example, the "Huh CD 4" listing, and then in the "Condition" details, just put the catalog number or tracklist. they even let you attach your own custom pictures to your item, so you could attach the tracklist pic if you want.
otherwise, you are just wasting your time posting these huH CDs for sale, since nobody will buy something without knowing what they are getting.
here is some more detailed info about the hows and whys of the huH CDs.
5 Sets of Discs
probably the most important thing to note is that the way they released them CHANGED in their second year. initially, they gave subscribers a choice between 5 genres of music, and the user would receive their magazine along with a CD of that genre each month. after doing that for over a year, they suddenly decided to release all the genres on a single CD each month, starting with CD 16, and they kept that format for another year until they finished with CD 27.
TL:DR; and so, CD 1 through CD 15 have 5 DIFFERENT VERSIONS of each.
the rest of the CDs, CD 16 through CD 27, as well as the Special Releases, have only one of each.
the worst part is, for CD 1-15, the covers are absolutely identical, and they all have the exact same indicia on the back (e.g., CD 1 for the first volume), with no real indication of which genre that particular disc is.
How To Identify your CD
only 2 ways are certain to help discern which disc you have:
1. the tracklists of each differ slightly. while some songs were included on multiple different genre discs, their layout ALWAYS differed.
2. the catalog number on the side of the case has a letter which indicates the genre, as well as which CD it is. so the Alternative CD 6 was HA0106D,
which stands for "huH Alternative Volume 01 CD 06 Disc Format".
here is a breakdown of the catalog #'s parts and what they mean:
huH Prefix: Simply the letter "H". Nothing meaningful otherwise.
Genre Initial:
A = Alternative
H = Heavy Metal
K = Hard Rock
R = Rap
S = Soft Rock/Mainstream
D = Diverse [i.e., multiple genres]
U = Unknown, lol [or Unlisted, perhaps]. this is only used on the Special Issue CDs.
Unique ID #1: This changed from the first year to the second.
CD 1-15: referred to the Volume or Year.
CD 16-27: referred to the month it was released. however, they messed up on the last 2 (CDs 26 & 27),
and put a leading zero in front of them.
each of the Special Edition discs had its own meaning:
Special Issue 1: Jock Rock used "SI", presumably for "Special Issue".
Special Issue 2: Summer Bootleg used "SU", for "SUmmer".
Special Issue 3: Blues Issue broke the pattern with only 4 letters in its catalog number: HD4D.
i can only presume with this one, but it seems like it was originally planned to be the 4th disc in the Special Issues, hence 4D.
this seems especially likely when you see the prefix "HD", which most of the discs from the second Volume/Year used as a prefix,
though the ACTUAL 4th Special Issue did NOT...
Special Issue 4: Techno Issue used "WN", for "Winter".
Unique ID #2: This also changed from the first year to the second.
CD 1-15: contained the CD number.
CD 16-27: referred to the year it was released.
the Special Issues also referred to the year of the release, except for the exception "Blues Issue", for the reason mentioned above.
Disc Type: the last letter of the catalog number referenced whether it was a Disc ("D") or a Cassette ("C").
so the Rap version of Cassette 6 was catalog number HR0106C.
CD Cases/Packaging
another thing to be aware of with the huH CDs is that they did not use standard CD jewel cases. they used plastic clasp cases, with the cover wrapped around and glued to it. they called this "FLP Digipak Snapcase" or "ECO-PAK-FLP" on early versions. you can learn more about this on the History page.
of course, just to keep you on your toes, they only did this up to CD 17, after which they used very basic cardboard sleeve slipcases, with open ends, wrapped in plasticwrap. CD 18-27 are in these slipcases.
Spelling
i've seen the title listed on various websites as "hu H", with a space after the "u", but that should NOT be done. not only does it make the release harder to find for those who are ACTUALLY wanting to buy it, but the u's position was simply stylized to look shifted over, to go along with the "acid wash" cover designs. i have never seen the word "huH" spaced, in any official documentation, and even the release group was known as "Huh Music Service", as listed on the backs of the cases.
i've also seen it typed as "Huh?" and "HUH", both of which are inaccurate, and should be avoided. in a large list, it makes it hard to sort.
you should stick to either "Huh" or "huH", for consistency.
Missing CD Numbers & Special Issues 1-4
you may have noticed there is no CD 10, CD 12, or CD 13. this is no coincidence. in fact, you may also have noticed that CD 11's catalog number has "10" where it should say "11", by the naming convention used. so Alternative CD 11's catalog number was "HA0110D" instead of "HA0111D".
during the year of 1995, in addition to the regularly released CDs, the huH Music Service also released 4 CDs, known as "Special Issues", to coincide with their huH Magazine Special Issues. i cannot be certain, since i myself did not have a huH subscription at the time, but i believe the following to be true:
in June of 1995, they released their "Jock Rock" CD to coincide with their "Sport And Music" Special Issue. this is when CD 10 would have been released, but instead, they gave subscribers this "Special Issue" CD instead. then, on the release of CD 11, they forgot to increment the catalog number to 11, since the catalog # for the special issue broke the pattern (HUSI95D). to make matters MORE confusing, they put the number on the back of the Jock Rock CD as "1" instead of "10", since it was "Special Issue 1".
then, after CD 11, they released another Special Issue, their "Summer Bootleg" CD, to go with their "Live Music" Special Issue, released in August 1995. the CD contained only live performances, and had the number "2" on the back, for "Special Issue 2", instead of regular release number "12". the catalog number was "HUSU95D".
the next CD was released the next month (September), and was the "Blues Issue", which just said "Blues" on the cover, in a neon blue, with the number "3" on the back, instead of "13". this was released along with their "The Blues Issue" Magazine. for some reason, they again broke their pattern, and the catalog number was simply "HD4D".
instead of another Special Issue, the next month (October) they continued on with their regular releases, returning to their naming scheme of "CD 14", with "14" in the catalog number as well. CD 15 continued the series in November.
then they released their final Special Issue, the Techno Issue, in December. i'm pretty sure this was the December release, as it was dated 1995 on the back, and the catalog number was "HUWN95D", which would be "huH Winter 1995 Disc", in theory, since the Summer CD had "SU" for "Summer".
what i find interesting though, is that the NEXT CD release was CD 16, and was also dated December 1995, by the catalog number (HD1295D).
if any of you had a subscription during this period and happen to remember the release schedule of these discs, please verify it for me, to help make this page more accurate.