Digipak / Album Cover Elements.

This is the plan I have created in order to help me create my Digipak cover for Nirvanas Nevermind album. With this plan I decided to include all of the main key elements or conventions that are crucial for an album/digipak cover, such as the band name and title of the album itself. All of the main areas included in this plan have specific significance that make the cover complete. Album / digipak covers are essential in the music and media business as it helps to sell the artist/band and give the audience an idea or theme of what type of music is on the CD.
Band Name; Is what attracts the audience to the CD as they may recognise the artist and their music so may be persuaded to buy this digipak as it's by a group they think are talented. The band name is repeated on the spine for stores that stack CDs with the spine facing outward and helps the customer to identify whose CD it is.
Album Title; This lets the audience know which album this is, such as whether it's a new release or an old classic by the band, it also helps people who collect the specific artists albums to establish if they already have it or not.

Artwork; Can attract the audience in, especially an in-depth piece of artwork can have connotations to what the music on the CD is like, such as Mika's album, Life in Cartoon Motion, is very bright and colourful, relating to the type of fun, pop music on the CD.

Artist/band pictures; Allows the audience to see who the artist is and possibly recognise them or give new fans an idea of what the artist looks like for future reference. Pictures on the back of the cover are usually taken from footage of the band such as music videos and allows the audience to recognise them further.

Track Listing; Tells the customer what tracks appear on the CD and what exact songs / music they will be listening to, as different albums often contain different songs.

Barcode; These are essential in this technological age, usually for purchase purposes.

Parental Advisory Warnings; Are usually put on album covers to warn parents that this CD has adult themes or explicit language included, as many parents would like to monitor what their children listen to for their safety.