Digipak analysis

Digipak Analysis

Gabrielle Aplin- English Rain

Digipak's are deluxe and bigger versions of an artists CD that cost more and give more content for consumers and audiences. It is a special style of packaging that is used for single CD's or albums and they typically consist of a gate fold (a book style), paperboard or card stock outer binding with or more plastic trays capable of holding a CD or DVD attached to the inside generic. It is different to a generic, jewel CD case as CD cases are three piece plastic cases with the artists liner notes and a simple back card. They are constructed into 4 sides where the information about the CD and songs is on either the front of the back, whereas with Digipak's, the information is displayed on lots of different sides as is a lot more detailed and useful for the artist. Jewel CD cases have been used ever since 1982 and are what we think off and expect to see when buying a CD. However Digipak style cases were introduced and became very popular in the early 2000's amongst record labels and recording artists. This is because Digipak's allows the artist more opportunities to show off their artwork, information such as lyrics and their promotions. This way the artist has more chance of appealing to potential buyers as they see the digipak's as collectable items, in comparison to the classic jewel CD's which are seen as very basic and contain less information. However, Jewel CD's will often contain lyrics of the artists so that the buyers know what they are getting and have an insight to the type off songs and content they will listen to and relate to the artist more. The artist also benefits the artist as the digipak will often have content that relates the the artists character and what they represent, as well as their predominate genre. It will likely embody a message or theme that the artist is trying to show and what they represent, increasing their image for audiences allowing them to increase their popularity. The digipak also exemplifies the artistic and creative approach is artist is taking and showing throughout his music. All aspects of the digipak, brand image and music video all interwoven together so that they all share a similar theme and share the same objectives as to how they make the audience feel and how they want to perceive themselves. They also benefit the artist as their music as digipak's are promotional aspects of the music industry that help to bring awareness to the artist by selling the artists representations and encouraging consumers to buy and listen to all their music. By buying a digipak, consumers and audiences are almost pledging their loyalty to that artist as they are paying more for more content in order to get as much as they can from that artist. 

I have chosen to analyse the digipak for Gabrielle Aplin's album, 'English Rain' as Gabrielle Aplin is my chosen artist for when creating my own music video. The song we have chosen to use as inspiration and a template for our video is Gabrielle Aplins 'Panic cord' which is included in this digipak as one of her most popular songs. The song panic cord is heavily promoted on this digipak as well, giving us a greater insight into the conventions of the song and digipak and some representations we could include in our own video. This digipak from Gabrielle Aplin is her debut digipak from her debut album and is currently her only digipak available. It contains a cardboard, narrative style, cover which expands to over 3 sides which are all made up to contain the same image and promotional information about Aplin. It also includes a deluxe edition of her CD with bonus tracks, information and hardback, cardboard style CD cover to give more back to the Aplins fans and consumers of the album. 

I feel the front of this digipak gives the best representation of artist and her music in comparison to all of the other sides of the digipak and the artwork on the CD. It includes details on her new and latest work therefore it gives a representation on her as an artist now and her current music meaning none of the analysis or conventions of the advert our outdated or on her previous character and music. The lighting used on this digipak cover is dull and somewhat low key with a black and white effect. This could connote that the background doesn't particularly matter to her and that she wants to be the centre of attention and wants the audience to focus more on her actions and the representation of her character. The black and white filter on it is used to match the dim, isolated background to create a mysterious and conventional feel and setting towards the poster and as a representation of some of her music as it is quite depressing and meaningful. This also helps when linking in with the her choice and genre in music as her indie, acoustic style is seen as quite subtle and not out there, giving an insight to her as an artist and possibly what to expect from album she is advertising. Gabrielle's positioning in the album cover gives us a representation of her character. We see a long shot of Aplin which is unusual as we cant see her face. This subverts the stereotypes of indie artists that we can always see their emotions and close ups of music artists however it shows Aplin is independent and unique. You can also apply the male gaze as she is showing some of her body. She is not using direct gaze which also subverts her genre stereotypes. This also connotes that she is secretive and has a sense of mystery about her. The location and setting of the poster is also a very secluded and lonely environment, much like herself in the poster. It looks very vintage and old fashioned which is a connotation of acoustic music and the indie genre. The iconography in the poster such as the colourful umbrella signifies whatever she touches gets better and brightens up. It also symbolises she's a fun, loving character and has many different characteristics. This allows the audience to relate to Aplin and find her conventional as she can get across to a variety of people and show true emotion in whatever she makes or does. The font and typography in the tour poster looks sophisticated and the English rain title appears to be in a handwritten font which is common in the indie genre. The name of the album is also the name of her main selling tour and  a song in her album therefore it doesn't draw attention to itself with a quirky and irrelevant title that a lot of pop artists whose titles have nothing to do with their songs. It is also a good promotional way of getting their song ore album names across to their target and the mainstream audience. There are connotations of the advert that the artist is promoting her album as well lots of different tour dates and information displayed across the bottom of the poster. This advert promotes her by showing her as bright and colourful compared to the rest of the world, which could be implied as other artists showing that she is influential and her music stands out compared to the mainstream genres such as pop because she stands out in the picture of her on the advert. These connotations would make the audience relate to the artist as they will see her as an idol because she is different from others so the audience will want to listen and follow her songs and what she says. The back of the actual album in the digipak is very similar to 

the front cover of the album with the main signified difference being there is more information about the album displayed on the back. This includes, songs, producers and developers company names, a barcode for retail and marketing purposes and codes and conducts about the album displayed at the bottom of the screen. The purpose of this is to show that it is a well developed and genuine album that fans can take pride in purchasing and hopefully enjoy the music and Gabrielle Aplins style. The font of the song names in the middle of the cover is the most important information displayed on screen as it is the element of the back cover that draws the most conventions, relates to the audience the most and tells consumers and her target audience what songs are included in the digipak and the sort of music that it includes. From the text, we see that digipak's over bonus features and songs as they offer more quality and content for loyal fans who have payed more and the font helps to give a representation of her Aplin's character and the style of music. The font of the song titles appears to be handwritten and this is a popular convention amongst a lot of indie artists. This is because it gives it that old-fashioned, genuine feel about the album that we often associate with a lot of indie artists music and voice. It shows it as simplistic and it suits the background and setting of the image as the colours are miserable and give off a sense of horror, even though its the exact opposite and it looks like a really old photograph creating a sense of mystery and curiosity amongst the audience and digipak consumers. 

The CD included in this digipak comes as a bonus feature for this digipak, with the ordinary CD in the album having no or little artwork. This CD was given to fans who purchased the digipak as extra content and aside from its conventional representation of the album name artwork for the album, it includes a number of different bonus tracks for audiences to listen to. These are displayed along the bottom of the CD and give fans a small introduction into the sort of content they can expect and as a reward and thank you for from Aplin to her most loyal fans. Some of these songs included acoustic versions of some of her biggest hits including, home, please don't say you love me and most importantly, the name of the album 'english rain'. The CD was created as a homage and solid representation of the title 'english rain' through her CD artwork and the content it provides. The most visible and conventional feature of this CD cover is the colourful umbrella displayed around the title 'Gabrielle Aplin- English rain' as each colour gives a representation and indication into her character. At the top of the CD we see the colours, white, purple and pink all behind the writing as these colours are not very powerful or bright and the audience are able to clearly focus on the text so it stands out to them and they can remember the name. These colours are also connotations of innocence and purity and these pastel colours help to express the femininity and playfulness of the album and in particular, Aplins character and representation as an artist. The umbrella as a whole and its colour is meant as a connotation as to how happy her music can make her feel, no matter the situation in their life (explaining why there a number of different colours to identify different meanings and situations). The umbrella is also a clear iconic and global symbol of 'rain', hence the title 'English Rain' and why the umbrella is used. The typography of the album shows Gabrielle Aplin's name shown in bold stand out font, whilst the album name 'english rain' appears to be handwritten. This is because in the artist and producers eyes, getting the artists name across is the most important thing about digipak as indie artists and many mainstream music artists as a whole care a lot about getting their name and image across whilst promoting their music to show that stubbornness and star quality in their character. The handwritten font of the 'english rain' is a conventional element of the indie genre as it shows the purity and simple touches to the digipak that portray Gabrielle Aplin for who she really is. It shows that she is a down to earth and innocent artist and the font is an example of this as it defines both herself and the music. The audience are also able to relate to this as it doesn't look spectacular or that it was thought about much and is just seen to them as a nice, small touch to show Aplin's character. This digipak helps to promote the indie music genre as it shows many different codes and conventions in its illustrations that we as an audience relate back to Gabrielle Aplin's music. Each cover and aspect of the digipak shows has the same style of background and setting and displays a expanded image across all three sides to give the whole digipak that same indie, conventional feel. This image has a black and white filter on the whole digipak with Aplin positioned in the centre of the camera as mentioned earlier in the post. The black and white filter each side is relatable to the indie genre as it gives it a depressing and mysterious feel for the audience that we often associate in indie music videos. One of the most popular filters or colour tones expressed in indie music videos is either black and white or a brown grayscale as it is a way of helping to add emphasis on a down, depressive moment or to add effect on the artists emotions. This is also used throughout the digipak for the same effect and for the people buying the digipak to focus on the shot of Gabrielle Aplin. This is also a way of allowing the record label to promote the artist through the digipak by having a number of different shots of Aplin across different elements. These shots show Aplin dead centre in the middle of the shot as mentioned before, holding either colourful umbrellas or balloons to show different sides to her music and character. This shows her as pure and innocent, as well using the colour of the balloons to define her creativity and energetic side in her music and character when away from the spotlight. This digipak is also used to attract an audience by giving fans extra content and expressing a more creative aspect within the pack and her music. 

In conclusion, I will use the research i have taken and include it in to my planning by implying the colour schemes, elements of mis en scene, cinematography and all the other micro elements identified in my Gabrielle Aplin digipak  in to my own ideas and images. For example, I have researched the black and white grayscale background and song lyrics typogoprgy and font surrounded in and know now that is is conventional to the indie genre as it helps to add emphasis on a down, depressive moment or image to add effect on the artists emotions. I will therefore use this in my own back picture and back of the CD album in my digipak but with a picture of my own artist and the fonts i have chosen and feel as suitable to represent my artist and conventions of my digipak and the indie genre. I will also use my research to inform my planning by identifying the knowledge i have of digipaks and the difference between them and a normal CD and following the same structure as the digipak and what i can add to it to make it look professional and suited to my own artist.