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.