Conventions and purpose of digipaks

A digipak is the packaging of an artists/bands album. The digipak usually consists of the title of the artist, the title of the album and a listing of songs on the back. The front cover usually includes a picture of the artist/band and can be use to portray a theme of the album, for example Taylor Swift's album Red includes an image of her with red lipstick on, relating to the name of the album. At times, the digipak includes a booklet in the front of the case which can include pages of lyrics of the songs in the album.


Front:
The front of the digipak tends to include the title of the album and the artists name, there may also be an image of the artist/band. The front also portrays a theme of the album or genre that the artist is associated with. This is in order to stand out to certain people that may enjoy that genre to increase popularity and attention for the artist and their album. It is also used to hint at what the audience can expect from the album, e.g. an image of a couple kissing will hint that the album is full of love songs.

Back:
The back will also portray a theme or genre that relates to the artist and album, as the colours and images on the front will continue through to the back to continue the overall theme. The main purpose of the back is to illustrate the track names and what number track they are in relation to the album, at times the length of the song is also included next to the song name. The bottom of the back cover will include copyright details, including a bar code and information about the record companies and also the CD identification number. Additionally information about the artist/band will be shown including their website and perhaps social media sites to increase their popularity further.

Inside:

The theme continues through the inside through the use of images and colours. In some cases, the inside of the digipak includes a little booklet of lyrics of the tracks on the album. Within the booklet there are also likely to be images of the artist or band that are specific to the album, details about the recording company and a message from the artist or members of the band to dedicated certain songs or the album to someone and also to say thank you to people of their choice.

Benefits:
The design of the digipak could be a selling point for the artists as it could draw someone to buy it purely judging on how the digipaks been put together. It can also prove loyalty for some people in the artists and can create awareness of their music.