Digipack Template

As you can see in the right hand picture, I have created a template for my six slides. To make my digipak the correct size of a traditional digipak, I done some research on the size of digipaks so I could alter my template accordingly to match the specifications of a proper digipak. 

Digipak size template

The picture below is a template I found online that shows the dimensions of a six slide digipak. I tried using the specifications to see if they were that similar to a real digipack and they were. I made the height of the digipack 12.50cm as both panels combined were specified as 250mm so half of that gives 12.50cm for the height. The width specified was 140mm so I made the width 14.0cm to stick to the specifications it suggested. I felt these was the perfect specifications so I decided to stick with these sizes for my final digipak slides.

Digipack Example 2

Conventions of a digipak

Steven Ballantine (A2 Student) example

Digipak's tend to follow certain conventions which are seen in most digipaks. I feel its important creating a blog post on the conventions as it will broaden my knowledge on the elements that make a successful digipak as following the conventions will help my digipak to look more realistic.

Front Page example

A common digipak consists of 6 slides which are full of band information and pictures which all relate to the artist.

Front Page

The front of a digipak tends to have one large picture on the front. The picture/illustration tends to have a relation to the song or artist. This can be a picture associated with the band or it can also be of the bands name. This digipak for example is of the artists name which has a clear relation to the song.

Inside 

Inside Page example

The inside of the digipak is where you can find the CD. The CD itself is often patterned which matches with the rest of the digipak and matches the rest of the packaging. The inside of the digipak typically contains the songs that you will find on the CD. This page is important because it is typically one of the first pages people go to when looking at the digipak because people want to find out what songs are on the CD. A few of the pages are pictures that relate to the band/artist. This is typically pictures that relate to the band such as pictures of themselves or of their equipment. Some digipaks also include additional information such as lyrics, artist information and personal messages. These aren't typically seen in all digipaks but are sometimes put in the digipak depending on whether the artist wants to or not.  

Back

Back Page example

The back page is often of a picture of the artist. The songs included in the CD can also be written on the back. This page also has information such as the record label and producers. This is to give recognition to the parties involved in the process of producing the songs. The final thing you would typically expect to see on the back page of a digipack is the barcode.

All of these conventions are very important to consider when planning a digipak because it is vital to consider the layout of the digipak to make it as realistic as possible. Making the digipak look professional is important because it will actually look as if it is a real digipak.

Example Digipak Analysis

Digipak example

I am going to do an analysis of this digipak to break down what is good about the digipak and what can be improved to make it more professional.

Firstly, I like the consistency in colour throughout the digipak. There isn't some pages colourful and some pages dull, the colour stays consistent throughout which shows a clear theme. The front page is professional looking as it has a photograph of the main artist on the tube line. Having a photo of the band/artist is a convention seen in most digipaks because it is like you are the introduction to the digipak.

The inside pages don't contain any additional information about the band, although this isn't strictly a typical convention, I feel more insight into the band/artist will be a lot more engaging and interesting as it will give us more information so we can understand what type of band they are. From the pictures on the inside of the digipak, we can see that they are a rock band as they have a drum kit, guitar and bass which are typical instruments you see in a rock, pop band. As the colour scheme is quite dark, we are led to believe that they are a rock band as pop digipaks would typically be bright and colourful such as: Katy Perry's digipak.

The back page of the digipak has the song names and also the barcode, this is effective because it makes the digipak seem more realistic as you would expect to see these conventions in a digipak. To improve the back page of the digipak, adding in social media accounts would have been nice to see as it would lead you to their social media accounts where you can keep up-to-date with the artists. From the digipak examples I have looked at, most contain social media links so you can easily find the artists social media as this is a way artists can keep in touch with their fans to give them more information and to provide a platform where the audience can leave feedback and interact with the artist.

Digipak Moodboard

The mood boards above are all examples of mood boards that have inspired me in my own digipak. A lot of the mood board examples above are all band shots/photos which is what I want to have in my digipak because in the digipak I want to give some insight into the band. A lot of the examples above are majority picture based, especially in the middle pages. The colour scheme for most of the examples above are quite colourless and dark which is great inspiration to me as the music video I have created is dark as it explores the themes of depression and isolation

Most of the examples have the song names on the inside of the digipak, I have used this as inspiration and have put the song names on the second page as from my research I found this was a convention of digipaks and therefore to make my digipak as realistic as possible, I will follow the traditional conventions.

From this blog post, I have taken inspiration from the examples I have looked at and will use some of their features as inspiration for my own digipak to make my digipak look as professional and realistic as possible. To do this, I need to use the conventions of a digipak which I explained in a previous post.

What is a digipak?

Purpose of a music video

Despacito music video

I have done a post explaining what a music video is but in this post I will explain the purpose of music videos and the reasoning behind making a music video.

Music video's are used as promotional material. A music video is a great way to gain publicity as it can be used as promotional material to attract viewers to watch your video. YouTube is the second biggest search engine over Google and is the largest music streaming website. Most artists publish their music videos on YouTube so their fans can watch their videos. Making music videos also helps the artist to make money. Advertisements can be placed on music videos which every time they are viewed generate ad revenue for the artist.

Creative visuals give the artist a competitive advantage as videos draw attention which in turn can draw in a large audience. The most currently viewed video on YouTube is a music video called 'Despacito'. According to Social blade, a YouTube analytics website, has earned somewhere between 74k-1.2M in just the last 30 days. Ad revenue is the best way to make money off the music video.