Is Album Artwork Important?

In this digital age, where everyone has access to Photoshop and stock photos, it seems the quality of album covers has gone down. Bands tend to throw quality to the wayside, instead preferring to make their own cheap covers. While this is expected for newer, struggling bands, it kills me a little inside when established bands decide to release a mediocre album cover.

Children are raised with the mantra of "don't judge a book by its cover," but as consumers, we are instantly drawn to pretty packaging. Nice packaging tells the consumer's subconscious that the contents will be just as pleasing, and encourage the individual to make a purchase. Because of this, it's important that bands realize when they are designing their packaging that they are not just creating an icon to symbolize their music on an iPod. Album artwork is marketing material, and it should be treated as such.

One of my favorite examples of artwork gone wrong is the cover of Cobra Starship's "Hot Mess."

Without knowing anything about the band, most consumers would be put off by this cover, mostly for the reasons that the band picked it. The girl is supposed to be a "hot mess," but to the average viewer, it comes across as sloppy and almost gross.

Conceptual album art is another way of encouraging purchases, but it is very often a hit or miss situation.

A few of my favorite covers:

This is two album covers. The one on the left is PlayRadioPlay!'s last album before a name change (and change in style) to Analog Rebellion, whose debut album is on the right. They were released at the same time.

courtesy of psfk.com

The original release of OK Go's "Of The Blue Colour of the Sky" had this abstract artwork as the booklet.

Although it shouldn't be left in the hands of just anyone, handmade album covers can be adorable, gorgeous, and altogether perfect for sale.

Album covers can often become very cliched, very fast, however. The one thing I always see, and can't stand, is the closeup on a woman's face. This usually happens with solo (female) artists, bands with a female singer, etc. Some examples:

The covers quickly begin to blend into each other, and just become background noise among other, more original covers.

As you can see from just the few examples here, album covers are more than just a place for bands to thank their moms and slap their name onto paper. As prime marketing space, covers have to be treated as the precious real estate they are - the first thing the customer sees.