RESEARCH ON THE CODES AND

CONVENTION OF A DIGIPAK

Introduction:

Digipak is a packaging for CDs or DVDs, typically made from cardboard with an

internal plastic holder for one or more discs. They can flip open like a book, or it can

have three parts, so that one portion of the packaging opens to the right and one to

the left, with the CD in the center portion. The portion of the digipack that holds the

CD is made of plastic like a traditional jewel case. All digipaks includes various

elements such as visual image, band/artist name, album title, basic background

information of the band/artist.

Front:

The first and most obvious convention of the digipak's I

have looked at is the title of the album and the artists name

on the front panel. The front of the digipak will have some

aspect of what the artist presents and what their

predominate genre is. It will most likely embody and theme

a message about the artist image. This links to emphasizing

the artist brand image which increases the popularity of the

artist. The digipak also exemplifies the artistic and creative

approach the artist is taking throughout the music.

Barcode

Band/Album name

Extra Information Record label

Back:

On the back of the digipak there will be an image which almost

always relates to the ongoing theme throughout. A track listing

will be displayed on the back sometime with the length of the

tracks and track number. On the bottom of the back panel we

will see information in copyright, we are also likely to see a bar

code as well as the contributing record companies at bottom

corner. We may also see information such as the bands website

or the artists social networking sites. We could see the artist

name and the album name, however sometimes just the album

name. We will often see logos for record labels contributing to

the album as well as a CD identification number.

Album nameArtist/Band name

BarcodeTrack list Record label

Inside:

On the inside panels we are likely to see more background

images relating to the theme throughout. There will often be

details such as song lyrics however due to our chosen genres

minimalistic lyrics this is normally not the case for the genre

specific deconstructions. We are likely to see the people who

played the instruments during each song and anybody who

contributed to the song such as the producer. There maybe

behind the scenes pictures from tours of the band and in

some cases all we see on the inside of the digipak. There are

also details on the CD including the recording company's,

the name of the album and the CD number.

Benefit of the digipak

Digipaks benefit the artist and their music as its

promotional aspect of the music industry which helps bring

awareness to the artist thus selling the artist and encouraging

consumers to buy and listen to their music. You could argue

that buying a digipak establishes your loyalty to your artist.