The Count & Sinden - Mega Mega Mega

The Count & Sinden's album, Mega Mega Mega, was released this week. The vinyl edition is another one that straddles the idea of physical collectability and technological convenience - albeit with bonus content. A gatefold double record set includes a coupon to download a special MP3/WAV package which includes full album instrumentals plus two brand new tracks.

Mark Ronson - Bang Bang Bang by Big Active

Big Active has completed a huge amount of high profile record sleeves - from Beck to Muse via Basement Jaxx, Goldfrapp, Foals, Snow Patrol and The Enemy. [Their White Lies packaging is also particularly worth noting.]

The recent design for Mark Ronson's 'Bang Bang Bang' appears to be a celebration of record collecting [it's actually taken from upcoming album, 'Record Collection'] and features what appears to be a collage of different sleeves. But all of the artwork is original and each element highlights an individual aspect of the track itself: seperately featuring Ronson plus featured vocalists Q-Tip and Mndr. But - also in tandem with the music - it also references aspects of the 1980s. [The artwork for the next single - 'Bike Song' which is out in September - has also been added.]

While it is interesting that it almost has this trompe l'oeil effect for the vinyl product, as online artwork it becomes even more curious.

Radiohead Put The Value On Design

From: Creative Review
Date: 01/10/07

Radiohead release their new album, In Rainbows, at the end of next week. As usual, the artwork (above) was created by long-term collaborator Stanley Donwood. Radiohead have always placed enormous value on Donwood’s contributions but with this release, that value has been made explicit: the album will be made available as a pay-whatever-you-like-download, but if you want the version with Donwood’s artwork, it’ll cost you £40.

When downloading took off, the conventional wisdom held that it would herald the end of the record sleeve, and with it the end of an enormously vibrant and influential period of graphic design history. But, albeit at a niche end of the market, some record labels have attempted to combat the threat of people downloading music for free by issuing special edition packaging: making the physical product that much more covetable in order to entice people into owning it. Making the most of its physicality rather than abandoning it.

The release of In Rainbows would seem to take this to the next level. Radiohead are effectively placing no value on the audio file of their new album. The value is not in the music but in the packaging and the physical objects within – the £40 “disc box” includes the new album on CD and vinyl, plus a second CD with more new songs, all placed inside a hardback book. It’s about owning something more than zeroes and ones – having something in your hands that has meaning and that can be displayed as a statement in every fan’s home. And it’s about graphic design.

Mos Def's The Ecstatic: The T-Shirt

From: Paste Magazine
Date: 18/06/09

Rather than accept the decline of the physical album as an inevitability, some people are taking active steps to avert it. Case in point: music/fashion impresarios Invisible DJ, in conjunction with LnA Clothing, have designed the first ever "Music Tee" for Mos Def's latest album, The Ecstatic.

It's a fairly straightforward concept in the vein of Of Montreal's promotion for Skeletal Lamping, which makes us wonder why more artists aren't trying it. The Mos Def music tee has The Ecstatic's cover art on the front, the tracklisting on the back, and a code for a downloadable version of the album on a tag.

Music tees for Santigold and Miike Snow are also in the works.

[Additional note: Spanish band Delorean also made their Subiza album available as a t-shirt and download purchase earlier this year. Info at http://pitchfork.com.]

The Future of Album Art

From: PSFK
Date: 16/04/08

While old-style album artwork is drawing its last breath, digital album art is taking on a life of its own. As Wired reported last year, there are a number of designers bringing advanced digital techniques to the operating table—online contests, liner-note fly-throughs and DVD-style menus, for example. George White Warner Music Group’s senior VP of strategy and product development, said:

“We’ve been looking at a few technologies (for digital album art), and have been trying to bring these to Apple, to encourage them to bring that level of experience to the iPod,” says White. “A very simple demonstration that we’ve done takes the Gnarls Barkley liner notes and does a fly-through (using Adobe Flash Lite). You’re actually moving through the lyrics and artwork. It’s sort of like a theme park ride through the album. It’s really, really cool-looking on an iPod.”

More recently, Wired pointed to a blog from London-based graphic designer Phil Clandillon called Sleevelessness, which documents and explores the changing role of graphic design and the web in promoting music. Clandillon recently pointed out the widget for Radiohead’s In Rainbows and Justice’s video for “DVNO”.

Now we’re noticing artists on MySpace using animated artwork to gain attention on the over-satured site. Zeegisbreathing points us to a band called Discovery (a side project from one of the members of Vampire Weekend) that is using a psychedelic flash-coded cover to stand out. @&*$*rw*#&we(@@#@…. Woah, sorry, we think we just had a seizure.

The Return Of Liner Notes: Scion Releases Album As Booklet

From: PSFK
Date: 11/06/10

Scion A/V is releasing a new album called Blu Jemz’ Night People, featuring Turntable Lab Radio’s Blu Jemz along with The Hardy Boyz, Mobroder and several other artists. The launch is unique as there is no music CD or physical media involved; instead, they have put together a booklet with extensive liner notes and a link to download the songs. Liner notes, rarely featured in music releases now, are usually printed on the inside of an album and contain information about the artists, lyrics and some anecdotes about the album. Blu Jemz said that with re-introducing liner notes, they hope to bring back the excitement it brought to an album.

The booklet is designed by Japanese illustrator Rimo, and is limited to only 1000 copies.

The iTunes Icon: How Do We Represent Post-Disc Media?

From: PSFK
Date: 08/07/10

Last week, Gizmodo’s Matt Buchanan mused how little iTunes in 2009 has to do with the CD icon we click on to launch it—Apple’s original “Rip. Mix. Burn.” promotional slogan seems so antiquated today.

The laptop this very post is being composed on has had its CD-RW drive used only once or twice since it was purchased at the beginning of this summer—perhaps poignantly, a CD placed inside and forgotten was recently removed because of the annoying spinning noise it created every time iTunes was started; the disc was not a medium but an irritation. So Buchanan asked Gizmodo’s readers to re-imagine iTunes’ disc and music note icon design for an era in which compact discs are used only by the Luddite, the stubborn audiophile, or the moping young man hoping to win back his ex with a mix CD. At this point, iTunes handles not only music, but our photos, television episodes, movie rentals, mobile contacts, and other sundry media duties. Let’s not forget what the purpose of graphic design is within the context of the desktop or dock—the icon should convey the utility of the program in a way that catches the eye with familiarity and conveys its own meaning clearly.

The results of the icon contest are a mixed bag—mostly joke entries, though a couple seem good enough to be viable replacements.

Music industry looks beyond music sales

From: The Telegraph
Date: 03/08/10

The hard-pressed music industry has been forced to look beyond CD and MP3 track sales in order to shore up sales. British record labels collected a record £193.5m in so-called "secondary revenues", which covers income from gigs and concerts to merchandise and film, TV and advertising rights, in 2009.

The BPI, the industry body which released the figures yesterday, said income from outside traditional music sales was up 6.6pc compared to 2008.

Secondary revenues accounted for almost one-fifth of record companies total sales of £1.12m last year.

Geoff Taylor, chief executive of the BPI, said: "UK record companies have responded to tough market conditions by innovating in the digital world and developing new revenue streams from recorded music, beyond their traditional base of CD sales and the encouraging growth in digital a la carte, subscription and streaming services.

"Music companies continue to face an enormous challenge from illegal downloading, but are responding positively by transforming themselves for the future, identifying new opportunities to generate returns from the massive investments they make - hundreds of millions of pounds per year - in UK talent."

Rupert Neate

Arcade Fire's Synchronised Artwork

From: CR Blog (and forwarded by Amy)
Date: 11/08/10


Back in 2007, director Vincent Morisset reinvented the music video online, with his interactive promo for Arcade Fire track Neon Bible. For the band's latest album, The Suburbs, Morisset has now turned his attention to how digital music files could be more visually exciting...

Morisset has worked with designer Caroline Robert to create a digital artwork that appears when the album is played on mp3 players like the iPod or iPhone. The work deliberately echoes the pleasures of old vinyl record sleeves, where the song lyrics were often written out in full. Each track on the album has an individual image that appears on the iPod screen when it is played, with the lyrics of the song then appearing on the screen as they are sung.

"Win [Butler, Arcade Fire's lead singer], wanted to create a version of the artwork that would be relevant in the digital world," explains Morisset on his website. "Most of us now buy, share and listen to music through computers and portable devices. It seems absurd that it is still a single jpg that is attached to an album in 2010."

"I thought about the relation we have with the vinyl cardboard cover or the paper booklet while listening to the songs. Flipping through the lyrics, looking at a band picture or a cool drawing related to a song while listening to it. With the mp3 player, we lost that. I wanted to find a way to get closer to that experience again."

As with his Neon Bible video, part of the success of the Synchronised Artwork is its simplicity. Explaining how it works, Morisset says, "Tightly sync a series of images with specific moments in a song using the m4a format. Like some podcasters do, but with micro chapters for each line of the lyrics. In addition to that, we were able to add good old hyperlinks also synchonised to the song. This gives the possiblity for the band to add, at any moment, all kinds of references related to each song. They plan to change and update those links occasionally."

The handwritten presentation of the lyrics on the screen works perfectly with the artwork that Caroline Robert designed for the album, which includes photographs shot by Gabriel Jones in the suburbs of Houston. To experience the Synchronised Artwork for yourself, head online to arcadefire.com, where it is included with the purchase of any digital download of the album.

Kitsune Noir Mixcasts

Art and design blog Kitsune Noir has been offering its compiled music 'Mixcasts' for a while now. Each comes with artwork. Yet as a digital download, it doesn't actually require any more than a text track list but it could be argued that the imagery allows the opportunity to build on the theme of the compilation itself with something substantially more evocative. However, I would suggest that the proportions and layout needn't follow the same template of a CD version given the freedom of a non-physical release. These, while beautiful, do seem to conform to some agreed idea about what a tangible music format should be.

Laura Veirs - July Flame LP

The latest album by singer-songwriter Laura Veirs features some bewitching illustrations by Portland's Carson Ellis. Yet it's the embedded video that demonstrates the real fetishism that meets music formats with the arrival of the vinyl edition prompting excitement. Everything from the proclaimed weight of the disc through to the discussion of the quality of stock highlights the value placed on physical formats. It is also mentioned how the purchase also includes a "download voucher" so that owners can also access the digital version.

Blur - 'Fool's Day'

This year's Record Store Day prompted scores of vinyl fans hitting the 300 remaining UK independent music retailers to grab some limited releases. While successful in terms of drawing attention to what are potentially threatened retailers of physical music formats, the exercise raises some questions regarding the value of music formats and the figures attached to the actual music.

Blur's 'Fool's Day' was one title that was much in demand. The band's first studio material in years, all 1,000 copies sold out almost instantly. Equally fast, many of these found their way onto eBay with Buy It Now prices between £145 and £175. Yet the band also made the track available as a free download on their website. The Guardian subsequently pointed out that it wasn't the song that had value, but the 7" object itself: describing the process as "exploiting that obsessive muso band loyalty and the status that comes with getting a rare and in this case lo-fi collectable".

[Many thanks for Amy for directing me to this.]

iTunes artwork

There's a counter argument to the suggestion that the MP3 has meant music artwork is in decline. The fact that the average iPod now carries around the thumbnails for files means that the music purchaser is now more likely to have immediate access to an associated image. In many cases, they are literally inseperable. And, should they become detatched, a product like Amphonic Designs' Album Cover Finder resets that connection between the audible and visual. Thanks to Nicola for the tip-off.