Digipack

A digipak is essentially the casing for what a CD will come in when brought in a hard copy from a shop. Although music is arguably moving on to become digitalised and therefore easier and more convenient to buy through software like tunes, where it can immediately be downloaded to consumers devices, a lot of people still prefer the physicality of buying a CD and owning it where it may be in a safer, robust form.

The digipak usually contains the album cover on the front, with a booklet informing the buyer about the artist, song lyrics, and about the album inside. Other media like DVDs or messages from the artist are becoming increasingly popular- a reason for this is it encourages people to buy the physical copy if they think they are getting more from their money when they get something they will not do when downloading in a digital form.

The digipak will be the first thing a consumer will see when considering buying a CD. This is why a lot of thought and research goes into what an artistis digipak will look like to ensure it looks tempting to buy. It can also connote the genre it stands for
Lets take a look at some digipaks...


The XX are a indie band whose music is mainly relaxed tunes with calming lyrics.

This is their album cover.

The most obvious thing is the contrasting black on white, versa visa illusion. Their bands significant logo is a plain 'X' which is the main attention to this. The album is simplistic as their music is minimal and is not 'busy' like pop music might be, but is one to appreciate the beats and voices of the group members. The cut out cross on the left mirrors the white cross graphic design on the CD. This is to advertise the name of the group, 'the xx' by including information about them in a  creative way. This makes the album more interesting. 

The front of the album cover is the same monochrome black on white. The oversized cross merely suggests that it may be by the band 'The XX'. It suggests that everything needs to be shortened and adhering as minimal as possible. This emphasises the only information that is actually on there, the track listings in white that still reveal much information about the style or genre of the music. The bold cross becomes memorable and easy to replicate. This recognisable theme means that is a motif throughout the album design. 

Here's a screenshot of one of their popular music videos.  The iconic cross design still remains consistent with the minimal style that creates a symbolic, good vs bad illusion.

This technique technique is also used in popular indie alternative band, the arctic monkeys, in their latest album ' Do I wanna know.'  Take a look at their album cover.

They have replicated a sound wave in white on a black background. A small sticker is the only indication of credit to the band when it comes across on a shop shelf. The ambiguous design is then suggested to be the shape of a woman's bra later in the album when a picture following the same theme of appearing to be outlined with a white line on a black background. The picture is obviously sexualising the woman which specifies the target age group range for the album. This indicates that it is for a mature audience as there is some explicit language and sexual themes common in their music. 

This way of revealing more about the music and album through use of pictures that use each other to construct expectations is an interesting method that I will definitely consider using. 

This is a good way to intrigue consumers who may be curious about what the album may include and to emphasis information, which I may find a useful element in my album cover design.


Other indie album digipaks tend to be more quirky, as I analysed earlier.

This is what online music shopping looks like. It focuses on the information as when browsing online, all our interests are based on statistics like what we are suggested to enjoy, what other people are enjoying and what ratings it has received. 

When in a physical copy being sold in a shop, they are presented something like this. There are many many CDs for shops to sell in a great range of genres.  That means there is only limited space for one CD among many others, so competition for consumers to attract and purchase one CD is high. CDs that look the best are more successful at attention grabbing. Although ones with more brightly coloured designs have an advantage here, CDs with a genre that would not suit a brightly coloured cover have to still look professional to reflect the quality of the music they are selling. 

Survey

Questionnaire survey 

This is my survey I will distribute. 

I started by asking basic questions to get an idea of my audience. Gaining an understanding of my audience will direct me to knowing which music genre particular age groups enjoy most. I have identified my target audience as 18-24 years old, so can base it off that. 

I then asked them fundamental questions on what devices they access music on, so I know how to distribute my video when it is composed. 

I would like to get a better understanding of what my music video should include. I am indecisive about whether it should feature a storyline etc, but the decision will be mainly based on genre.

People can openly comment what interests them most about music videos, whether it's inspiring dances, attractive celebrities or some creative camera work.

What will be most obvious is what people dislike in videos: it can be hard to specify what you like however people may feel strongly about dislikes as they tend to stand out more. If i get a lot of responses with replies consistently saying they dislike long, boring shots of someones face or an instrument, then I can gain an idea of what to avoid. 

Although I will research in more detail what is popular amongst album covers, I thought it would be helpful to link responses now hat people like to what genres they prefer.

Album cover analysis

This is an album cover from the popular singer Adele. Her music concentrates on her extensive range of vocals and emotions she portrays through her songs. 

To reflect the genre, the album cover is a close up of her face looking down, suggesting a melancholy vibe to it. Although she has obviously has her face made up for the shot, she looks natural from the positioning of her hand pushing her hair back. The plain grey background ensures all attention is drawn to the singer and also creates a dull but sincere feel. The colour scheme of a black and white filter indicates a soul, neutral theme but the shadowy element of it connotes an underlying, darker theme which is brought out in her songs. She is not made out to be glamorous or bold like a pop singer, but subtly attractive in a more understated way. There is no evidence of other music composition like instruments, so that it is obvious with the bold title 'ADELE' she is the credit taker for the album.

This album style would be ideal for an independent singer. Her videos are very much uniform with the cover: they share a black and white colour scheme with close ups throughout.

The majority of the time is of her face singing the words to create a connection with the audience that they are getting a close performance of her emotional lyrics. This is ideal for a soul-singer genre. This will not be too great for our video as we would like to include a bit of creativity and explore with different camera shots and include a storyline. Having a lot of face to camera time gives the person credit to the song, which would be unrealistic.

This is an album cover from the group 'Mika.' It is extremely vibrant and busy. There is a lot of colour going on with a doodle-theme cartoon of random objects. The colours create a cheerful reflection of the music which suits the pop genre. It includes minimal information, only giving credit to the group and specifying the name of the album. The main focus of the picture is the words in bold, 'MIKA,' with all sorts of colours and cartoons tied into it to draw the eye. This is effective because it would certainly stand out on a shop shelf. Again, it is consistent with the music videos 

The background clashes with what the singer is wearing, creating an attention-grabbing illusion. The singer is also dancing in big excited movements as if to the beat of the music to highlight the bouncy, fast pace of the music that makes it so inclusive in the pop genre.

This would be interesting to attempt. The album cover will take a lot of creativity and either graphic design skills or handy work. 

Indie album covers all have a uniqueness that are fairly common the indie music industry. They all have a grunge theme, light colour schemes with one element or object the eye-catcher. A lot of them have a weird iconic theme, like a landscape or image with something wrong with it. 

These are some examples. 

These are fairly easy to do provided a basic design with a quirky twist can be done and still look professional. The theme in these is that there is a cartoon with a disturbed element. This leaves the audience open minded about what they are going to hear; there is not much suggesting what kind of music tune there may be so the audience cannot prepare for it in the same way that they can an adele album. This can create a suspense and interest as well as surprise in the music and video. The videos can be randomised and quirky which can be fun to do.