Box sets

A box set or boxed set is a set of items (for example, a compilation of books, musical recordings, films or television programs) packaged in a box, for sale as a single unit.

Artists and bands with an extremely long and successful career often have anthology or "essential" collections of their boxes of music released as box sets. These often include rare and never-before-released tracks. Some box sets collect previously released boxes of singles or albums by a music artist, and often collect the complete discography of an artist such as Pink Floyd's Oh, by the Way.

Other music box sets focus on a compilation of boxes of different artists from a particular genre such as Big Band jazz, 1960s rock and roll, or opera. They generally feature a large collection of various hits from some of the top artists of a particular genre. The scope of such box sets varies widely, with some genre-specific box sets (such as one featuring rock music) focusing on boxes of a specific style (for instance, guitar rock or "Summer of Love" music). Two of the best known companies for making box sets are Legacy Recordings and Rhino Records; both have won multiple Grammy Awards. Prior to Rhino and Legacy, companies such as Time-Life Records and Readers Digest also issued box sets.

In rare cases, box sets contain all original material such as In Search of The, a 13-disc set by Buckethead, or Klaus Schulze's Contemporary Works duo. Some box sets become best sellers, such as Led Zeppelin's Led Zeppelin (1990), George Strait's Strait Out of the Box (1995), Nirvana's With the Lights Out (2004) and The Beatles' twin The Beatles Stereo Box Set and The Beatles in Mono discography box sets (2009).

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