DIGIPAK TEXTUAL ANALYSIS

This digipak is a 6 panel fold. Each panel has an image of the artist on, it therefore takes every opportunity to promote the artist and give the customer a number of extra images that may be special edition or would simply not be available on a normal CD. The front cover has the typical codes and conventions of a CD cover; the artists name, album name and an image of the artist. These codes and conventions make it easily recognisable for the customer to buy. This cover in particular has a landscape background with blues and greens and the artist seems to be holding a sombrero hat. These features denote the album name, 'Desert Rose' as well as connote the style of music that she plays. The big road sign in the background alongside the bright blue sky connotes lively or fairly upbeat music. Her dark, rock chick style clothing also connotes an up-tempo album, it also tells us that the artist is loud because she looks like she's going out to a party. The sombrero suggests partying because the Mexican connotations are all to do with fiesta's and festivals.

The three panels on show inside the digipak have orange tones to the images. This suggests a happy and calm side to the artist. The first panel (left > right) is a close-up of Ruby James, the artist and this gives the audience the opportunity to see close-up's as they would not see in real life. The image also has a caption just as the other images do. The middle panel holds the CD, however we can see that there is a faded image behind it which abides by the style of the digipak so far. The third panel has another image of the artist with a band mate. They are dressed in black and set in a formal room sitting on a sofa. The dark clothing combined with the orange tones suggests vibrant music as well as the personality of the artist. Their dress sense is indie/rock as we can see studs and the mans hat, shirt and tie are fairly informal as they are scruffy.

This digipak for Jeff Peterson is lively and upbeat. The theme and setting for the images is the countryside, this connotes his genre of music. On panel one we can see the background image is of two horses in a field and what is, presumably, Peterson on one of the horses. There is a lot of text on the panel which is something that many artists choose to include if they have a digipak because it is an opportunity for them to write messages to the fans about the particular album and give thanks to their production and management teams. This also appears on the middle panel, where there is an image of Peterson holding a guitar and wearing a Hawaiian necklace. This suggests light-hearted country or pop music and establishes him as the Hawaiian singer he is. The third panel is like an alternative CD cover, it includes his name, album name and a picture of him sitting on a fence in the countryside. The light colours in all the images portray Peterson as a mellow performer and the title of his album also denotes his style of music 'Maui on my mind'. The Digipak cover includes the codes and conventions of a typical CD cover; the artist with an instrument in an exotic location with the album name appearing across the image and the artists name to make it easily recognisable.

This digipak is different to the other two, it contains no image of the artist but instead has a piano keyboard along stretched across the three inside panels. The image of the piano is not a typical image because it includes the mechanics of the piano as well rather than the outer aesthetics. This suggests that the artist is more classical and is supported by the design of the CD itself, which is made to look like a vinyl record. The first panel of the digipak has text on it which acknowledges the production and management team, this is unlike Jeff Peterson's digipak which includes information and a message to the fans. This makes the digipak more formal and highlights the classical connotations. We can see that this digipak in particular has a pouch for a booklet behind the first panel; this is something that many digipaks include as it allows them to present more pictures or information to the fans. It is quite common for pop music CD's or digipaks which include this pouch for a booklet to have the lyrics to each song on the album in it. The lyrics will then be known to all the fans who buy the special digipak and encourage them to learn and be able to sing along to the music and at concerts.