digipak analysis

A digipak is a format of packaging for presenting music on CDS. As opposed to the common and traditional use of just a mere plastic case for the CD, a digipak consists of a plastic case which is slotted into a cardboard holder for protection. Furthermore, the digipak and the jewel CD case have different purposes: the purpose of a digipak is to give the audience something more than just the CD itself. A digipak is a lot more personal as it contains a letter or a note from the artist, addressed directly to the fans. This is not something you conventionally find when buying an artist's music and therefore it is almost like the artist is giving something back to the fans. The high quality of the images and artwork used is a lot more appealing for the audience as it gives the digipak more meaning than just a product to sale. The addition of bonus tracks is sometimes contained in a digipak which is another way of giving something more to the artist's fans. A digipak has a more efficient purpose than a normal jewel CD case as it features six sides as opposed to the latter's mere four sides. This means that there is more visible artwork which is a good way to attract buyers as it makes the album more interesting and stands out against other albums as the artist has the opportunity to be a lot more creative. The easy accessibility to information is again another appealing aspect to a digipak and as it is more long-lasting it is better than a jewel CD case.

The digipak I am going to analyze is for my chosen artist, Gabrielle Aplin, who released her debut album "English Rain". The digipak uses a lot of the conventions of the indie genre as the first noticeable aspect to it is its simplicity. Despite the lack of elaborate artwork, the artist uses one central theme throughout the digipak: the use of an umbrella image links with the title of the album "English Rain". The immediately noticeable contrast between the use of greyscale and the brighter colors used on the umbrella and also the balloons makes the digipak a lot more eye-catching and unique. The images used throughout the digipak have all been aligned centrally which is useful in quickly grabbing the audience's attention. In addition, all the images link together so there is a sense of purpose and regularity through the digipak which is a lot more appealing for the audience as it gives the impression the quality of the music inside will also be high. Despite the artist's face not appearing in a large image to quickly draw the audience in, the artist uses a handwritten signature in the digipak which makes the audience feel as if the artist actually made it with the intention of giving it to that fan specifically and therefore it is still very personal. In addition, Gabrielle includes a kiss at the end of her signature which is something you would conventionally put after talking to someone you like; therefore it is just another way to attract the audience and make them feel like they really want to buy this digipak. Although not with handwritten typography, the artist has also put their name on almost every other part of the digipak, which is just a useful way of keeping the artist firmly established in the audience's mind. Furthermore, the typography used on the front cover (and CDs) of the digipak is essential as the artist's name has been written in capital letters which creates a bolder display for the audience, attracting their attention more. 

Gabrielle Aplin is represented as being evidently quite young and friendly, as she uses quite innocent images which reflects the target audience (15-25). The images of a balloon and an umbrella are quite childish in comparison to other genres which use more striking and provocative images. In addition, the use of pastel colors reiterates the representation of Gabrielle Aplin being quite young, playful and carefree as they are positive, happy colors. Moreover, on the front side of the digipak Gabrielle Aplin is holding an umbrella which is color, whereas the background is all in black and white. This represents the artist as being quite impacting on people's lives as it suggests that everything she touches brightens up. The use of low-key lighting in this side of the digipak contributes to this idea as well as the layout of Gabrielle Aplin being positioned centrally as there is heavy emphasis on her and the color. The shot used for this image is a long shot which is subversive to the genre conventions as you cannot actually see Gabrielle Aplin's face properly. Furthermore, the umbrella actually covers up her body which represents Gabrielle as being quite modest, subverting the expectation of women being provocative in music. However, it is arguable that the use of the greys and washed out whites connote a darker side to the artist and that although she may be young and targeting a younger audience, her music may be more serious and have deeper meanings. The color white is conventionally used to connote innocence and purity, yet it is washed out here which suggests that although her music may be innocent as a whole there is an underlying serious and darker tone. Furthermore, the use of the dark colors, added to the wide shot image of the artist in an isolated area altogether represent the artist as being somewhat introverted and disconnected from the rest of the world. This is useful in attracting the target audience as they themselves are at an age where a lot may be occurring in their lives and they feel disconnected from everything; therefore the audience would feel that they can relate to the artist more. The actual location used in the image is successful in promoting the genre the countryside/seaside setting used looks extremely still and calm; this reflects the gentle mood of the indie genre that uses a lot more simple and softer tones. Overall, this side of the digipak is very successful as the juxaposition between the brighter colors used in the umbrella with the dark tones of the remainder of the image tell the audience more about the artist: there is more to the artist that meets the eye. The audience should not jump to the conclusion that the music of the album is going to be depressing as grey and black colors have been used, as Gabrielle is shown holding a brightly colored umbrella too, bringing in positivity to the image. The audience therefore are more attracted to the digipak as it makes them feel more inclined to purchase it as they want to find out more about such an ambiguous artist.

For both CDs, the balloon and umbrella designs have been used again, keeping the digipak consistent. Both images have been used as iconography of the digipak as they create more meaning to the album. The use of purely brighter colors in both the CDs connotes that the actual music itself will be happy, positive and light. Furthermore, balloons connote freedom and flight which suggest that as opposed to the immediate assumption that the artist is lonely and isolated, as shown through previous images, she actually feels alive and free. In addition, the choice of the pastel colors helps with the representation of the artist being quite feminine and young. These two images evidently represent something more to the artist which is why they have been chosen as the design for the CDs, as opposed to having a picture of her face, as many other artists do. This promotes the indie genre as it demonstrates that the genre focus more on the content of their music and the deeper meanings behind it, rather than the face of the product and the celebrity recognition and status behind it.

Despite the lack of detailed information on the front of the digipak, there is some on the back. There is a list of the included songs in the digipak which is extremely useful for the audience as they can quickly see if they will actually like the songs on the digipak and therefore will be more likely to buy it. In addition, the songs are written using the same handwritten style typography the artist uses to sign her name. This again makes the digipak appear more personal for the fans as it gives the impression that each individual song has deep meaning behind it. The layout of the text is another important factor as it has deliberately been aligned centrally so that the list of songs included in the digipak are the focal point of the back cover. The use of a washed out white color of the clouds aids in the writing to be more clearly visible so that the audience can quickly read the contents, making the whole process of viewing the digipak easier for them. In addition, the choice in colors advocates the subversive representation of the indie artist as being darker and more rebellious. The spine of the digipak is also a noticeable feature in this image; it follows on with the black and white theme used throughout the digipak which helps to maintain regularity and high quality. The artist has kept the spine simple; the only information is the artist's name and the album title. However, Gabrielle Aplin has also included the Parlophone logo as this is the record label she is signed to which is an effective way to promote her as a music artist.

The choice of images is very important in a digipak and all the images that Gabrielle Aplin has included are extremely relevant. In the side of the actual digipak with the balloons on there is a background image of a field. The use of this location is extremely conventional of the indie genre as the artist likes to use simple, open and easily accessible locations to film in to reflect the simplicity and deep meaning to their lyrics. However, as the location has been edited with a black and white filter, we do not see the conventional Earth colors we usually see in the indie genre. This challenges the stereotype of seeing green colored landscapes in the indie genre as black and white is almost never used in the indie genre; it is more conventional of the soul genre. In fact, the theme of black and white is quite prominent throughout the digipak; even the text has been written in only black and white. This represents the artist as having two sides to her as black is stereotypically used to signify rebellion, whereas white signifies innocence and adhering to rules; having mixed representations of the artist makes the digipak a lot more interesting for the audience.

As a whole the digipak does promote the genre of indie music as it keeps with the convention of using a simple layout and design. Gabrielle Aplin has used virtually no text on the front and back - just the name of the album and her own name on the front and the songs included on the back. This makes the digipak a lot neater and presentable so that the audience do not feel overwhelmed. The digipak focuses a lot more on the artwork than the text as this is how to successfully attract buyers. Moreover, all the images used are of exceptional quality which tells the audience that there is real meaning behind them and they have not just been put in for absolutely no reason or purpose. The higher quality finish of the entire digipak makes it overall more appealing and long-lasting so that fans who buy it can actually keep a hold of it and appreciate it more.

From analzying this digipak I can now see how to make a more successful and appealing product for the target audience. As I am using a Gabrielle Aplin song, it is useful that I analyzed "English Rain" as I now know what the artist would include in her digipak. The most appealing aspect of the digipak for me is the creative use of color. I think for my own digipak I will employ the use of both greyscale and color as I want to make my digipak as interesting and creative as possible. Furthermore, I do not think I am going to include pictures of the characters on every side of the album, perhaps only one or two sides. For my planning I will need to think about what pictures are relevant to the song, as I cannot just use random pictures where none of them link together.

magazine analysis

The most important purpose of a magazine album advert is simply to promote the artist's album, particularly for upcoming artists. It is extremely important for artists to reach as wide as a target audience as possible.Therefore creating a magazine album advert ensures that more people will listen to the album; those of the older age group are more likely to see the advert as they would be more likely to see a paper copy as opposed to seeing the advert on the internet. However, often artists may have their advert up around train stations and bus services which also helps to reach a wider audience. Seeing the album being advertized on multiple platforms acts as a constant reminder of the upcoming album, even if it is subliminally; therefore when the album is released, more people will remember and want to buy it. In addition, the album advert will link in with other advertizements of the album; this will consequently create more marketing for the artist as their album will be promoted as much as possible. To push sales even further, the album advert would attract other companies. For instance, iTunes is a huge promoter of a lot of artists with upcoming albums, and as a lot of people use the software, more people will see that the artist is releasing an album soon and will want to purchase it.

The first album advert I am going to analyze is for my chosen artist, Gabrielle Aplin, whose debut album, English Rain, was being promoted. The first noticeable aspect of the advert is the simplicity of it; this links in with the genre conventions as indie artists prefer to keep their work more low-key. It is also a reflection of Gabrielle Aplin's music which is quite simple as it predominantly only features one or two instruments, as opposed to heavy synthetic computer sounds. The image used on the advert is highly relevant to the album title as "English Rain" refers to the weather and Gabrielle is photographed holding an umbrella. The use of the image would be appealing to the audience as a lot of them would most likely live in England and therefore can relate to the typical rainy English weather. The size of the album title in comparison to the artist's name is significant as the latter is a lot larger; this is due to the fact that the advert is promoting the artist's debut album and therefore it is more desirable for her if the first thing the audience see is her name as it will stick in their minds more. In addition, if the audience are in a rush and the only thing they see is Gabrielle Aplin's name then they can look her up later on and see other music such as singles or covers she has done and then perhaps share her music around on social media, creating more promotion for her. Furthermore, despite it being a small sized font, the advert includes the artist's website, so if the bottom of the advert was conveniently the first thing the audience saw then they would be able to go check her website out. Of course it is also useful for those who have time to actually read the advert properly and therefore will perhaps remember that the artist has a self-titled website. The inclusion of a website is an excellent way of promoting the artist as it will include all relevant information concerning the artist and their music, such as upcoming albums or singles or even if they are playing live nearby. The size of the date of the album release as well as a few of the songs included are also written in a larger font size than the album title. This is useful in quickly establishing to the audience when they can grab a copy of the album, if again, they are in a rush. In addition, the mention of some of the singles included in her album is useful to those in the audience who have actually heard some of her music before and therefore would be more interested in the album if they liked some of her already released songs. The colour of the text used at the bottom of the advert for the release date and songs included if significant as it is in a mixture of both white and blue. This connotes the idea of there being two sides to the artist: the white connotes purity and innocence, relating to the fact that this is her debut album, and the blue represents the darker side of the artist. The blue coloured text links in with the colours used for the image of the advert, as the image consists predominantly of darker colours such as blacks and dirty whites. Furthermore, the colour of the costume that the artist is wearing juxtaposes with the colour of the image of the setting. Gabrielle Aplin is wearing a conventional vintage dress; however it is of a creamy-white colour which again connotes how innocent she is as she has only just properly been established into the music industry. The use of setting for the image is again conventional of the genre as indie artists tend to pick simple locations that are easily accessible as it maintains the simplicity they wish to keep due to the simple nature of their music. This actually promotes the indie genre as a whole as the audience will recognize the conventions of the genre and subliminally expect to see them in other indie adverts. The image of Gabrielle is positioned centrally which is done purposefully in order to direct the audience's gaze right to her and therefore allow the audience to put the large sized name "Gabrielle Aplin" to a face; this would be useful if they see her face again on another advert as they will quickly recognize her. The actual typography is interesting as the font used reflects the genre; it is quite quirky and fun so when the audience see the advert they will be more likely to feel as if the album will be very enjoyable to listen to. The font used for the actual album title name is slightly different to the font used at the bottom of the advert; it looks a lot more like a handwriting style font than from a computer. This makes it look like the artist herself wrote the album title and therefore makes her album a lot more personal than if it were all done by someone else on a computer. In addition, the style of language used in the advert is again expectedly simplistic. The advert does not go into much detail about who the artist is or anything biographical in any way. Instead, the advert sticks to focusing on information relevant to the artist's upcoming album and that it "includes the singles..." which the audience may recognize from elsewhere. This is useful as it draws the audience into the advert more as if they are not initially interested in the album, if they see songs they recognize and love, they will be more likely to want to buy the album. Moreover, the advert includes the formats that the album comes on - "CD / 2x CD deluxe / 12" vinyl LP" - which is a good way of attracting a wider audience as different people use different formats to listen to music. 

For my second magazine advert analysis I chose to use a male artist instead as I think it makes a good comparison within the same genre. In this advert, Tom Odell is promoting his upcoming album at the time, "Long Way Down". The first noticeable aspect of the advert is the choice of images; a photo of the artist takes up almost half of the advert. Using such a large-sized image is an effective marketing technique to promote the artist as this advert is for a debut album and therefore some of the audience may not recognize him; now they will remember him next time they may see his face elsewhere. Furthermore, the alignment of the image is to the far right which is useful in terms of design and layout of the advert as it allows a lot more room for crucial text. The image has been taking as a shallow focus shot so that the setting behind the artist has been blurred and the artist is the one in focus which puts more emphasis on him and the audience remember his face more clearly. It is also effective to keep the image as simple as possible - there is not a lot occurring - as this matches the indie genre conventions of simplicity in both the music and the visuals of the music videos. Furthermore, as the artist is directly facing the camera, it is a lot more personal and therefore attracts the audience's attention more. In addition, the artist's facial expression is arguably on the more seductive side as his lips are parted and his gaze is direct and intimate. Tom Odell's hair is quite tousled as well which would attract the predominantly female audience into the advert more. The unkempt and quirky look of the costume the artist is wearing represents him as a quintessential indie artist, as they often go for a more rustic look. In addition, the artist's hair is tied up which represents him differently to the stereotypical masculine "butch" image. Therefore, those who see this advert and appeal to things that subvert from the mainstream will appeal to the artist more and be more interested in finding out about his music. The use of colors of the costume and the general advert also promote the genre as indie artists tend to go for more simple and natural colors; in this case the use of green and blues reflects natural Earth colors, as opposed to bright and bold colours used in the pop genre for instance. The color used on almost all of text is white which connotes innocence, reflecting the fact that this is Tom Odell's debut album. However, the color of the the album is actually in gold, which stereotypically connotes wealth. This links with the information provided nearer to the bottom of the advert that the album is an "award winner from the Brits critics' choice". The use of the color gold alongside this information is helpful in conveying the artist in a more positive and appealing light to the audience and therefore they will be more impressed by the upcoming artist and may be more inclined to buy his album. In addition, the size of the text varies depending on what the content is; the size of the date of the album release is the largest part of the text after the actual name of the artist and album, as it a crucial piece of information. If the audience see this advert up someone and they are in a rush, it is helpful to them as their eye will be drawn more to the date. It is evident that the advert layout has been planned so that everything is efficiently ordered and there is not a lot going on. All of the text has been aligned to the left so that it neatly contrasts with the image on the right-hand side. This is effective in filling the page so that it does not look empty but avoids crowding up the magazine advert. Furthermore, the advert has been designed specifically so the name of the artist and the name of the album has been positioned directly at the top so that this is one of the prime aspects the audience notices. Both these bits of text are written in extremely large font size to be as eye-catching as possible and the font used is exceedingly simplistic and therefore very easy to read. The inclusion of the Brit Awards logo is another helpful aspect to the advert as the audience may not actually recognize the name but recognize the logo instead. As Gabrielle Aplin's does, Tom Odell's advert features his website at the bottom; as it is not the most crucial part of the advert, it has been placed more out of sight than the rest of the text, but still allows those of the audience who have time to examine the advert in depth to go check out more information about the artist. Therefore, it is an extremely useful way of promoting the artist and the music they make.

The magazine advert for Gabrielle Aplin is quite successful in promoting the album and the artist. However, I do think that Tom Odell's is even more successful as it includes a reference to a highly acclaimed award he has won; on the other hand, Gabrielle Aplin's fails to mention as exceedingly successful singles she may have released. The inclusion of the Brit Award for Tom Odell, will make the audience more inclined to buy his album as they recognize the high prestige of the award. Contrastingly, as Gabrielle Aplin's advert does not show any kind of impressive recognition, it slightly dampens the quality and success of it. However, Gabrielle Aplin's is still successful in that it adheres to genre conventions and really grabs the audience's attention with the unique design of it. Both artists have been promoted well; the representation of Gabrielle Aplin being a carefree, innocent and playful female really grabs the audience's attention as the whole advert has been designed around the fact that she is a new edition to the music industry and therefore people will be curious to see who she is and what her music is like. Tom Odell on the other hand is slightly more well-known and has successfully been promoted through the allusion to the Brit Award and the link between his face and his name; this gives the audience the ability to recall having seen him before and share the advert around.

Conclusively, looking at both of these advertizements, I can now see what makes a successful album advert for the indie genre. Both artist, despite their differencing genders, provide very similar conventions that I can employ in my own advert. I quite like the use of having minimal text and more focus on a photo of the artist as I think a simplistic layout will create a more appealing advertizement. If the advert uses a minimalistic style, the audience will remember the sole focus of the advert (the artist's album), as I think too much detail and information will overload the audience and they may stray away from the main objective of the advert. Another aspect I have taken from analyzing these adverts is that I can now see the effect of the use of colors and will be sure to stick to a more basic/neutral color scheme, even for the costume as well.