CD Cover Design & Digipacks

What is a 'digipack'?

"The content of a digipack is exactly the same as... usual CD covers, it is just getting dimensions and folds correct.'

The Fratellis - Costello Music

The Fratellis album Costello Music made a huge hit in the UK reaching it's peak at number 2 in the album charts, and also staying in the Top 100 for 83 weeks continuously.

This album has had a huge variety of reviews from critics from it being compared to The Libertines, Babyshams and Arctic Monkeys and also being described as sounding like 15 other artists of this time. However, it has had some positive reviews by being 'amible' and also by taking themselves less seriously than most other indie rock bands. This is meant to be reflected in their general attitude; and yet due to their hair and their album artwork are meant to have a classy attribute to them:

Overall, I believe this album was such a success partly due to the artwork as it would attract a wide variety of audiences and also grab people's attention due to the cover being unconventional by going against a stereotype in the image. However, as it is also based around a fashion, one could argue they were simply modifying the image of women. I do believe they may have sold the album  due to other factors, such as them having a typical indie-rock band sound, which is so popular today. 

Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly - Searching for the Hows and Whys

This is one of my favourite album, challenging the acoustic guitar and modern issues commonly featured on the news; however others did not agree considering it's peak in the UK music charts was number 33. Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly has a lovable persona, but this did not help him sell his music - not even guest vocalist Kate Nash boosted the sales. Critics say he did not challenge the folk-rock genre enough to create a successful revenue. This was not to do with the eye-catching, strange digipack, but what was contained on the CD.

Overall, this album had a selective audience at first eye, but could relate to many people's inner emotions. This cover was therefore successful and evaluated the artist well by using intertextuality of him being on the front cover. Perhaps it simply was the music that faulted a large profit.

Adele - 19

This was Adele's debut album and what a raving success it was! It reached number one in it's first weeks in the charts, and was also released in the same week as the number one single Chasing Pavements. Within the album was a cover of Bob Dylan's song Make You Feel My Love which was strongly approved by many critics. The cover was an image of the new artist emerging out of the darkness, relating to her emotions when this was released.

Overall, the album was a huge success but possible due to the catchy song Chasing Pavements enlarging the image of this album and therefore attracting many to buy it. The cover could represent the artist's emotions as she is slowly rising to be one of the UK's largest female artists.

Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not

This album was Arctic Monkeys debut album and was titled the UK's 5th greatest album, emphasising its success. It was the UK's fastest ever selling album in selling 360,000 copies in its first week in stores and also went quadruple platinum.

The idea of this album was the concern of the young Northern English clubbers shown in song tracks such as I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor and also challenging topics on nightlife shown by When the Sun Goes Down. This gives the album a set demographic, but it reached a larger audience than expected shown by the sale rate.

Overall, the cover of this digipack does not aim at a set audience, par the smoking, but not a significantly young audience. As the cover reveals very little about music, the consumers of the album may have brought it out of curiosity.

Pixie Lott - Turn It Up

This was Pixie Lott's debut album, which reached number six in the UK charts - not the best of starts. However, the first two tracks on the album Mama and Boys and Girls reached number one in the UK's singles charts. It sold 500,000 copies in the UK and earned itself a platinum certificate.

Overall, the sale was down to the first two singles being successful. The cover was showing the artist's passion for music rather than giving any indication on the genre or what the music contains. It does not have a set theme, only a typical pop CD.