Conventions Analysis of Digipacks

Information

Digipacks are a casing/cover for either a CD or Vinyl which is produced to promote, protect and portray an idea of what the album is about. Digipack’s are typically made from cardboard with an internal plastic holder for one or more discs.

The digipack is often looked at in such a way that it is a premium style or deluxe way of keeping the tracks. However, in today’s post-modern society, technology has advanced and the music industry has changed. Everything is now bought through online forums, downloads or conglomerates such as YouTube, ITunes, or Spotify.

Digipacks often include things like extra CD’s, bonus tracks or a DVD with behind the scene features. It gives a personality and identity to the artist and gives them a chance to show their fans more information about themselves, as well as just listening to their music. Furthermore, it plays a part of establishing the artist as a recognisable brand and creating familiarity with its audience; meaning that fans than own one album will be subconsciously drawn to an advert for a new album release.

Existing Digipack's 

Maroon 5’ digipack was influenced by painter ‘Pablo Picasso’ which is clear from the album covers. The print used includes bright colours, primarily pink, which makes the title ‘Overexposed’ stand out; attracting customers on a shop shelf or online. Furthermore, their album cover is very different as it incorporates surrealistic cartoon like drawings collages together. Furthermore, there is also a parental advisory sticker to highlight the use of explicit language within the lyrics of their songs, separating their music from a younger audience.

Red Hot Chilli Peppers ‘I’m With You’ digipack contrasts to Maroons 5’ in many different ways. The minimal artwork, which can be seen on the left, was unveiled via the band’s mailing list. The album art was designed by Damien Hirst – which Chill Peppers front man Anthony Kiedis said “Its art. Iconic. We didn’t give it it’s meaning but it’s clearly open to interpretation”. Their album cover is quite the opposite too Maroons 5’s as hardly any colour has been used, there is no parental advisory sticker and it conveys a calm tenor to their music; which in fact juxtaposes to their rock style songs. In December 2011, Q voted the album cover art as one of the best album covers of 2011.

My Digipack

From researching into exiting digipaks, I have come to the conclusion that intertextuality is a key feature to include and consider when creating my own – the images and font often links it to it’s merchandises and to other promotional materials; in order to keep familiarity with the audience and continuity through house style. I have also realised that there is a close relationship with the digipak design and target audience, as well as it linking directly to the genre of the music – each genre usually having identifiable characteristics and conventions. Digipak’s of my genre (Pop/Rock) are usually very outgoing with bright colours and images. However, it is clear that these stereotypical conventions are also flouted due to ‘Red Hot Chill Peppers’ album cover being quite the opposite. However, I am going to explore my options until I come up with the suitable fitting digipak for my album.

General Conventions of a Music Digipack:

• Barcode
• Record Label Name and Logo
• Artist Logo/Name
• Website Address
• Images of the Artist
• Track List
• Relevant images and fonts
• Album name