Researching Ancillary products: Digipaks and their importance to the music industry

Digipaks

Digipaks are a form of Cd packaging usually made of cardboard, they can open out into two parts or even three. 

They are used as a form of promotion for the Artist and can enhance the distribution of their music.

A Digipak more personal for the audience that purchase it, digipaks come with extra feautures which you might not be likely to find on a normal CD.

These include: 

• Artist biography, how they started up, or created the album
• More information about the songs
• Extra Graphics 
• Appreciation from the Artist for purchasing the Album (Thank you notes)
• Promotional stickers 
• Sometimes lyrics booklet 
• Autographs
• Posters (usually A4)

With these features, the audience can feel appreciated by the artist and they will feel closer to them. Digipaks can create a form of reward to them making them feel special and more open to lpurchasing more Albums from the artist. Many often collect digipaks by specific artists or various artists.

·         Digipaks create or build on an artist image.

·         They are aslo a way in which artists can appeal to a wider audience, therefore boosting sales and bringing some profit into the labels due to the higher price 
        Use of digipaks can also decrease the number of piracy downloads

Futher research on Digipaks....

Digipacks have pros and cons:

·         They look nice, and many bands and labels like to use them for aesthetic reasons. The three section digipack sleeves opens up more design options because there is more room. However, they're more expensive

     

·         Digipacks don't crack like jewel CD cases do, but they will rip and eventually the paper begins to peel apart and separate.

·         The trays in digipacks break much more often then in jewel cases. There's not as much protection since the outer portion of made of paper, so the teeth that hold the CD in place crack and fall out easily.

·         When the teeth of the tray does break in a digipack, the CD falls out of the bottom of the digipack, because unlike jewel cases, there is nothing to hold it in.

·         Digipacks can be more environmentally friendly than jewel cases because they can be made of recycled paper - however, they aren't always in fact made in this way

·         Digipacks look great, but if you're just starting out and money is tight, looking for ways to cut your manufacturing costs is important. Stretching your budget to because you like digipacks aesthetically is not a good investment.