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FINISHED POSTER

Conventions of CD Advertisements

Key to promotion of albums is their poster announcing the release.

This is a good example of an album advertisement. The font and colours reflect the name of the album. The information is easy to read and clear. Having an image allows the viewer to see who the artist is and allows them to judge what style of music you think they will have.

For our advertisement we will need to stick with vintage and contemporary theme. Sticking to the font courier new, this gives our digipak a recognizable branding We are going to have take good images which reflect the genre and style that links to our type of music yet we will remain with a simplistic look.

 

Finished Digipak

Above is each panel in large. Below is the finished flat pack of our digipak.

The image below is an annotation explaining the reasons for our images and where they have been placed.

Flat plan of digipak

Digipak Cover

We have started to edit the back of our digipak...

Digipak Idea

This is an idea for the digipak cover...

After making our music video, we now have to create a digipak that complements the style,genre and artist etc. We have taken a still image from one of the shots used in our music video and hav edited it using a polariod background and then added the text at the botttom.

This will not be the final cover for our digipak it was created simply to play around with ideas and see which direction we hope to venture. We think we shall create something similar possibly using the polariod effect but we shall take new images for the cover. As in our music video we dont actually show the main characters face until the first chorus we feel that we should have her face on the front of the album cover to divert away from too much mystery.

CD Sales Investigation

CD sales dropped dramatically in the last five years due to illegal downloading from the Internet and the widespread CD burning. The easy access to this has made it such an easy adjustment and for those that cannot afford all of the music they want. It allows those to have free music on demand.
The Universal Group, which is one of the largest record cooperation, cut the sales prices up to 25% in the last two years, in order to increase sales hoping to grab the attention of fans and to decrease the amount of illegal download.
Comparing the sales figures of 2009 and 2010 the figure dropped from 147 million to 114 million this year. In 2007 CD's accounted for 90% of the album sales in the United States, with digital accounting for the other 10%. In 2009 the CD sales were only 79% whereas the the digital download of music had increased up to 20%.

Nowadays it is not so much the sales of CD's, which makes the artist earn his money but more iTunes and other online downloading sites. That change came along because it is so easy for everyone to access Internet anytime and anywhere. In addition iTunes also allows the buyer to buy only one song of a whole album, which makes it more convenient for some people.

The sales of CD's changed rapidly over five years due to the introduction online download especially illegal download. Its popularity is still on the up and increasing rapidly. Artists have resulted in making money by doing more live concerts and also headlining and playing a set at music festivals. Festivals are extremely popular and are an easy catchment area to promote the artists music.

Existing Digipak

We have taken the album cover of Adele's new album '21' and copied it using photoshop.

Below is the edited and copied version. However, we struggled to change the thickness of the font to match exactly to the original album artwork.

Star Image

Star Image on Prezi

Digipak

A digipak is a kind of CD case. It is a six-panel product. It is made from paper and consists of a plastic disc tray that has been fitted inside on one of the panels and the other remaining panels are left for artwork, lyrics, track lists and front covers etc. It was considered the environmentally friendly version of CD cases, although they have remained less common as they suffer more from wear and tear than jewel cases. Also they have remained less common due to the fact they have higher manufacturing costs.

A jewel case/ CD case consists of 3 pieces of plastic put together. This is the more traditional package for a CD. It has the same if not similar plastic CD holder and then the casing on the front and back has paper slotted inside with information on the album and artist.

In our opinion the digipak has more value. It has 6 sides, allowing for more artwork and information of the artist to be obtained whilst also the promotional benefits are greatly increased. The more allowance of space means the artists can promote themselves with more than just their CD but with significant information about themselves adding a personal touch which people do like to see when looking at the concept of celebrities. The item is also seen as a collectable therefore meaning it needs to have that added feature to make it something others want to keep. One of the other key features is also the environmentally friendly touch, the environment is becoming extremely important to our generation and if others have a slight feeling of ‘doing good for the planet’ it adds to the purchase.

What we need to include in our digipak:

• The artist name
• The album title
• Album artwork
• Disc holder
• The names of the songs on the album
• The copyright label
• The record company
• Album credits
• Barcode

Font Tests

We have looked on Microsoft Word to experiment with possible fonts to use for our digipak, posters and anything regarding the sale or advertisement of our album. The fonts have to be consistent throughout the advertising process, in order to create regularity and familiarity. Our favourite font is the 6th one down, which is Courier New. We think this font compliments the style of our genre and its simplicity features relate well to our artists.

I blame coco

Promotion Investigation

     THE DRUMS

The Drums are an American indie pop band from Brooklyn, NY. In December 2009, the band was shortlisted as one of the 15 music acts for the BBC Sound of 2010.

“The Drums have got simplicity down to a fine art. The Drums’ newly minted blend of surf-rock and indie pop was as canny as it was minimal and uncomplicated. Song titles from their self-titled debut, from Let’s Go Surfing to Best Friends, were never likely to mask socio-political treatises” BBC REVIEW.

Album Releases:

‘The Drums’

Released: 7th Jun 2010

Label: Moshi Moshi/Island Records

‘Portamento’

Released: 2nd September 2011

Label: Island Records

The albums artwork is of a photograph containing two people. There is a young boy stood alongside his mother or grandmother perhaps, whose eyes have been edited through computer graphics; his eyes have been filled in red to possibly symbolize possession and the Devil. This connotation is also given through props in the background, a wooden Cross is hung directly above the boy’s head onto the wall. The picture is again of an 80s style, like in the “Best Friend” music video; it could possibly have been taken by a Polaroid or film camera, rather than digital image.
The album title appears to the top right of the cover, typed in large black, bold font inside a white box. The box also contains directly underneath, in smaller font, the band name and a track list. This isn’t very common in typical albums, as the cover usually focuses mainly on the image, rather than font.

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