What's going to happen to album art?

With music straying away from the disc format, it makes me wonder what's going to happen to all the great artwork of records and CDs (to a lesser extent). When I was a kid, my dad must have had hundreds of records. I used to spend hours just looking at the art and letting my imagination run free. Like his copy of "Tommy" which had a book that was filled with pictures of pinball machines in all these crazy places. Or the cover of Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here," where two dudes are shaking hands in what looks like a movie studio and one of them is on fire. When I finally heard those albums years later, it made them that much more interesting.

I deal with CD art everyday at Revolve. I had to teach myself graphic design and learn the specifications of print and what needs to happen. I gladly do that to help people get it right. Things like low resolution art, wrong specifications, no bleed and bad formats are commonplace. Templates help but do not solve the problem. So I'm glad that I can help.

It seems like downloading music takes two things away. The first is the album concept. I can't name how many albums are best experienced as whole works. How can you get the message of albums like Frank Zappa's "We're Only in it For the Money," or Radiohead's "OK Computer" when you download pieces of it or listen to it as an incomplete piece or not in its intended running order. The second is the whole aesthetic piece of the album art. How many times have you rummaged through discs at the record store taking in the album art and wondering whats inside?

On the other hand, the digital age enables album art to no longer be limited to the constraints of paper. It can be anything. Putting it together with the music will be a task, but I can see that being a cool thing. I tell the artists that work with me that a way to save money is to minimize their printed art and have the full art in digital format on their web site or MySpace. Also, we can make them a CD-Extra master with the art as a file on the disc that they can download.

Its tough to replace the touch and feel of the album. You can't have EVERYTHING behind a screen. I hope my one month old will go through my albums and CDs one day with that same sense of wonder. It might be like going through antiques at a thrift store, but the joy should still be there.

Until next time.

-Zack