Digipak: What is it?

What is a Digipak?
Digipak-style packaging is often used for CD singles or special editions of CD albums. Digipaks typically consist of a gatefold (book-style) paperboard or card stock outer binding, with one or more plastic trays capable of holding a CD or DVD attached to the inside. The generic "digipack" came to be used to describe all soft CD packaging. Digipaks were first created by MeadWestvaco, and their product, called Digi-Pak, is trademarked. However, as the format became more popular and began to be used by more manufacturers. Now in current times digipaks are very common and very popular.

Example of a digipak

How does a digipak benefit the artist? 

Digipaks benefit the artist and their music as its promotional aspect of the music industry which helps bring awareness to the artist therefore selling the artist and encouraging consumers to buy and listen to their music. You could argue that buying a digipak establishes your loyalty to your artist  

example of a digipak

The front of the digipak with have some aspect of what the artist represents and what their predominate genre is. The digipak will most likely embody and theme and a message about the artist image. This links to emphasizing the artist brand image which increases the popularity of the artist. The digipak also exemplifies the artistic and creative approach the artist is taking throughout the music. For example if there’s some futuristic idealism conveyed in the lyrics or the visuals in the music video then the front cover wouldn’t be very contemporary but more obscure and abstract. All aspects of the digipak, brand image and music video are all interwoven together.

-Key elements of a Digipak-

Text:
Name of the band/ artist.
Name of the album
Track listing
Price
Bonus Material
Website
Credits
Recording information,
producer, where it was recorded and when.
Who wrote the songs.

Pictorial:
Pictures of the band/ artist.
Logo
Barcode
DVD logo
Cd logo
Website banner

Design:
Colour and style to fit Artists genre.
Unfolds
Cardboard sleeve/ Adverts DVD
or cd Booklet dvd/ cd case

example of digipak

Digipaks Advantages: 
They look good, and many bands and labels like to use them for artistic reasons. The three section digipack sleeves opens up more design options because there is more room. However, they're more expensive than traditional liner notes and jewel cases.   They are visually much more appealing, and they are a good investment, because instead of collecting numorous amount of cds of the favoured artists; the consumer can just by for example a digipack of the artists greatest and they get extra bonus of a booklet extra cd/s.   Allows the customer to know more about their favourite artist via the booklet they can see who wrote the songs and its a good way to promote singer/song writers, photographers, musican that contributed to the dvd or cd.  

 Digipaks Disadvantages:   
Digipaks don't crack like jewel cases do, but they will rip and eventually the paper begins to peel apart and separate. The trays in digipaks break much more often then in jewel cases. There's not as much protection since the outer portion of made of paper, so the teeth that hold the CD in place crack and fall out easily. When the side of the tray does break in a digipak, the CD falls out of the bottom of the digipak, because unlike jewel cases, there is nothing to hold it in. CD's or normal dvds are a cheaper option than digipaks, only dedicated fans are likely to purchase a digipak.   

Number of Panels
Digipaks can consist of 4, 6 or 8 panels. The most common being 4 but recently 6 panels is becoming a more preferred number for artists as they can include more disks and more songs, which massive fans love to purchase, and have a hard copy to add to their collection.

4 panel digipak

6 panel digipak