With the advent of digital music, the practical necessity of packaging is going away. However, the place of packaging as a purveyor of information (lyrics, liner notes), as well as an artistic “scene setter” (setting the stage for the musical experience) could remain.

When packaging had a practical purpose – protecting the disc within – record companies could justify its existence and additional cost. It soon became apparent that decorating the package was desirable and even a boon to sales. With the necessity disappearing, can the existence of packaging be justified on any other terms?

 The “art” of music packaging – album covers, single sleeves or bags, etc. – peaked in the the mid 1960s to the early 1980s. This moment may have most clearly arrived with the publishing of the first Album Cover Album in 1977. One could marvel at this development. So soon – a mere decade or so after album art reached its high point in maturity and importance – the craft was being memorialized and in a sense placed on pedestals in a museum.

It was not long after the publication of this landmark book – six years – that the CD came on the scene, striking a serious blow to the importance of album art.

Packaging was miniaturized. The 12½" cardboard record sleeve was replaced with a 5" CD jewel case with thin paper inserts. When an album that had originally been released on vinyl was reissued on CD, the artwork was simply shrunk. Where once the record buyer was able to peer into a cover larger than the average hand-held mirror, the CD package didn’t invite this scrutiny. There was less room for detail, or even for typographic exuberance. Do album covers such as The Sex Pistols or Blue Note Jazz covers work as well in CD the format as they did as record sleeves? Do they have the same impact?

Of course, these questions became little more than philosophical, once CDs became the medium of choice. We are stuck with the fact that someone had to decide what size the CD package would be, and then standardized that size. It’s too bad that the standard package wasn’t, say, a square of cardboard with a circular cut-out that would hold the disc; this cardboard “tray” could, in turn, slide into a cardboard sleeve. The overall size could have been the same as the standard LP sleeve – or a bit smaller, to differentiate it from a record package. Alas, someone decided that it didn’t make sense to make the package substantially larger than the item it protected. (But have you purchased a software package in a store? Ever noticed how the box gets bigger depending upon the price of the product, even though the contents typically consist of a disc, a manual, and a lot of air?)

Fortunately, CD package design matured, with the development of digipacks, o-cards, and overall design treatments that provide intricacy and interactive enjoyment. The purchase of a CD is a “moment” in itself – removing the shrinkwrap, opening the case, breathing in that “new CD smell,” carefully removing the disc from its tray, leafing through the insert.

 Today, the CD format – which came to dominate the marketplace while marginalizing LPs and (thank Heaven) tapes – is no longer secure in its dominance. In fact, it appears that CDs will soon join their predecessors along the sidelines – unless music lovers can be convinced that the visual, informative, and even tactile aspects of music packaging are worth maintaining.

Recorded music has become nearly intangible – transferred and “contained” in a series of digital ones and zeros, easily replaced if lost or damaged, not requiring a protective sleeve but stored in cold “appliances” that in themselves possess little emotional bond with their users and are easily replaced with no remorse. There is no practical need for what we could call a “traditional” sleeve or jewel case.

But there’s hope. Records – vinyl LPs – remain in production today. Their place in the market is marginal, and in a sense redundant and unnecessary. They exist more for aesthetic reasons than anything practical.

And therein may lie a clue to the future of music packaging in general, since packaging itself is now justifiable for aesthetic reasons alone. Though digital files are routinely transferred via wire, they could be exchanged on a disc held in a protective sleeve or case.

In fact, this is already happening – and this is one reason why we appreciate the CD. Its technology is still current and compatible with the new technologies embodied in iPods and computers.

With the CD, you get it all: music in a form that is ready to play and that is also easily transferred to other applications. Files which can be stored, archived and collected on the CDs themselves, on one’s shelves. You also get the information – lyrics and credits – and the visual, artistic, “scene-setting” experience, which can easily be enhanced with the addition of video files on the disc.

It’s all embodied there – on CD – and exists as a complete, “portable” experience.

As for the appearance of the musical package – can we take it for granted? We are well acquainted with album covers serving as symbols for the music within. XTC’s “Oranges and Lemons” album is bright, colorful and sunny – the cover art tips us off to that. Conversely, “The Big Express” is heavy and metallic – and again, the album cover gives us that clue. Andrew Bird’s “Mysterious Production of Eggs” is warm and hand-made, like the drawings that fill the packaging; the artwork for “The Futureheads” is slapdash and jittery, much like the music contained therein. In cases like these, the album artwork creates a visual context for our music, and makes the overall listening experience more complete.

In addition, a well-designed package provides a pleasurable moment in itself – art for the masses, on the cheap. How many times have you been tempted to purchase an album, simply because the package was so attractive? We could dismiss that as merely good marketing, but it is in reality a much more legitimate experience -- there's just something about a clever or well-designed image that we naturally enjoy.

For more about the visual aspect of music packaging, here’s what one expert in the field has to say. Quoting Storm Thorgerson in Eye of the Storm:

“The cover design is not necessarily or primarily there as a sales tool – after all, many best-selling albums have lousy covers – but to stimulate and entertain instead, to provide a visual extension of the music within, and to present information attractively.

            "…Album covers are important since they are the only other items which last as long as the music – which can be quite a long time. The cover stays, when much else slips away, when record companies change, managers are fired and groups disintegrate or retire. Album graphics, like book covers but nicer, are permanent packaging, sitting on one’s shelf or rack for years, viewed and reviewed often, especially when the music is played…

“People value their albums and become attached to the accompanying designs, sometimes as much as to the music, and on rare occasions consider them worthy in their own right.”