Digital Pack Analysis – Arctic Monkeys AM (1)

The latest Arctic Monkeys digitial pack for the album AM has a very simplistic design, which is yet effective/clever.

First of all the colour scheme is black and white which is a common theme of colour in the indie/rock genre as these colours are a genre convention which stand out to the specific audience, this is called the niche audience, of which it appeals to.

Next of all, what looks like just music wave form on the front actually has a little AM in the middle, so that the album therefore has the name of the band in the top corner of the digital pack, but also has the new album/cd name. Also, each wave looks slightly like an ‘A’ or an ‘M’ which is obviously open to interpretation but it is an extremely apt design for such a plain, simplistic cover.The Arctic Monkeys logo (name and pattern) is now unbelievably recognisable due to the simple design which tells me that our digital pack should be considerably simple so that people can easily spot the band title/album cover. People in shops like to be instantly able to recognise an album – not have to work it out.

The text at the bottom of the digital pack advertises a few of the famous/more recognisable songs that the new CD within includes.

Obviously the digital pack opens at one side (right) and on the left just just has the name of the band (Arctic Monkeys) so that the pack can be spotted on shelves and alike.

Digital Pack Analysis – Nickelback Greatest Hits (2) The band’s name is clear

at the top of the digital pack, which so is the ‘greatest hits’ which simply states to the audience what the digital pack is/contains, therefore especially with the large, clearness of the ‘Nickelback’ text, the digitial pack is instantly recognisable for fans/the audience in shops.

The photo on the album is just a photo of the 4 members of the band again which is extremely simple and fans will recognise the members.The photo is quite a dull shade which fits into the rock genre convention of colours which is mainly black and white, which most of the digipaks I have looked at have been like. This suggests it is what the audience for the Rock genre (which is the category of music/video we are using) look for.

On the back of the digital pack is a list of the songs which the CD within contains, which is usually 20+. Underneath this is the usual copyright terms and conditions/copyright etc, followed by a barcode allowing people to be able to purchase the digipak.

The CD interestingly is a black/grey colour, which looks quite retro, almost a vinyl style which in the modern era of music, the old style of CD now regularly represents greatest hits CD’s. This will attract people to look at the digipak and tempt them to buy it because not only will they more than likely love the music on the fancy CD, but the CD can then also be a sort of decoration, or memorabilia, or be added to a collection.

Digital Pack Analysis – Acoustic Oasis (3) This digipak is different from the other two that I have analysed because this one instead of having the band’s main logo or an image of the band members on the front, because it is an acoustic album it has a simplistic image of an acoustic guitar in order to inform the audience this is an acoustic album – This is supported also by the caption by the title of the album ‘Oasis’ it says Acoustic right beside it.

This digipak is two fold instead of the usual one, and as we can see there is a CD in the digipak, but because there is an extra fold/panel compared to normal, it indicates that there is more than one thing in the digipak (as you would expect, as this isn’t just a normal album)

On the back of the album there is a track listing of the songs that are on the CD – this is a common feature on just about every back panel of a digipak/album.

Again, another common feature is the basic title of the small/thin side panel of any digipak/album cover which makes the digipak/album recognisable on a shelf in a shop for example to the potential purchaser.

Additional CommentsFrom analysis the 3 similar and successful digipaks that I have looked at, it has become clear to me that the most successful digipals are usually fairly simplistic, have a clear colour scheme of mainly black and white, have a photo of either the band’s logo/name, and the title of the album e.g: Greatest Hits, and on the back is a track list of around 20 songs.Last of all the side panel of the album also needs the name of the band and album so that the digipak is instantly recognisable for the audience/potential purchaser on a shelf at home or in a shop.