How Effective is the Combination of My Music Video and DigiPak?

The digipak performs certain functions and a role on its own. It represents a quick look into the artist, and provides very basic information on them. The front cover provides mostly aesthetic information, and a look into the artist's style- this natural propensity to be eyecatching is all to serve the main function of the album front and digipak in general, which is to draw in the target audience, who then can go on to look at the other media products associated with the artist. The front of the album shows off the entire band, and uses our artist's signature colourful DIY aesthetic- anyone attracted to these things is more likely to enjoy the music contained in the album and the rest of the artist's work. It fulfils its role very well.

One of the most basic yet potent effects of the combination of my music video and digipak is the fact that they both represent more content for the audience. No matter if the audience sees the album cover or music video (or even website) first, they can then look to the other product to gain greater insight. While the album cover by itself does not offer a lot of information or content in the same way the video does, it still works to build up the identity of the band, as per David Gauntlett's theory. He says that a consistent identity is important in creating and maintaining a successful artist and/or brand, and is built up across all products and in every image of the artist. Thus, a large image such as the one found on the front of the artist's debut album, which is promoted at almost every turn and is a great gateway into learning about the artist, is a great way to establish and build up the band's identity. All the products do this and have synergy, in that no matter where or at what product the audience member looks, they will find a consistent identity for the artist, which they should hopefully want to buy into after being immersed in it long enough. The album's front displays the band doing gestures and facial expressions to aid this identity, and the music video does a similar thing but of course in motion and greater detail. Thus both products combine effectively.

Carol Vernallis wrote a lot about audio-visual aesthetic. Her ideas state that a music video has a consistent "look" created through all of its elements, usually audio and visual elements as the name suggests. This meshes well with the theories of David Gauntlett, who stresses the need for a consistent identity for music artists, which can also be built up visually. Thus, we made sure that the digipak and music video share lots of key visual elements. These include the general fashion choices of the band members, prominent colours in both products being the same, a DIY look (cardboard in the music video, paper on the album's front,) and a general upbeat attitude in the gestures, actions, and events that happen. In this way both products have synergy and are linked on the most basic, visual level, i.e. someone can look at one or the other and instantly tell they go together. This consistent aesthetic is key to our artist's brand, which is effective in that the audience will buy into once exposed to it enough and appealed to by it enough.

Another important facet of our media products is the uses and gratifications theory in relation to the audience. Blumler and Katz developed ideas on why an audience might want to consume a piece of media- we were particularly interested in Diversion, which is when people seek fun and escapism, Personal Relationships, which is when people form bonds with characters in the media to some degree, and Personal Identity, when people want to see themselves reflected in media they consume. Thus we tried to make both our album cover and music video visually appealing, to utilise Diversion, and tried to make the characters relatable to utilise the other two. Diversion was relatively simple, in that regardless of theory or convention we wanted our video and digipak to look good anyway, and we had a consistent look across both of them to better appeal to our audience and build up a brand- plus, we made the main plotline of the music video about a dream, and carried this colourful dreamlike aesthetic across to the album, to aid in escapism. The others were harder; in the video we tried to make the actions and facial expressions happy and aspirational, while keeping the main character shocked and confused at the mystical things happening to preserve relatability. Then, on the album front, we kept the happy, quirky gestures and even managed to translate the dreamy look of the singer onto the digipak as a proxy for her amazement in the dream of the video. In this way we will reach and appeal to our audience through uses and gratifications, as our media products share elements of what they are looking for when consuming a media product.

The inside of the digipak has a less defined purpose than the front and back. This is because it simply has to build on the aesthetic of the front, while leaving all of the information to the back. It doesn't have a unique role, but it still serves a very important function, as it has to hold the attention of anyone attracted by the front cover, convince them to keep looking, and reinforce the established image, all to ensure that the audience member continues on to the back cover and/or the rest of the artist's campaign and media products.

The audio-visual aesthetic that Carol Vernallis describes music videos as having refers to all the elements used to create the style or look of the video. Mise-en-scène is one way this aesthetic is created, and so we carried this over to our album cover, specifically the insides. In the music video, we have lots of props that you might see in the average household alongside all of the cardboard props, giving the whole thing a DIY feel. One or two shots even have a lot of clutter. Thus we used the same approach for gathering and arranging props for the digipak as for the video, and ended up with something of a very similar aesthetic, down to the colours even. This effectively creates synergy between both products, and more importantly, a consistent brand that the audience can experience and buy into.

Identity is very important across all of an artist's media products. It is easier to create in a music video and on the front of the album, but harder elsewhere, yet it must still be created elsewhere- David Gauntlett's theory states that identity across a campaign is very important in creating and maintaining a star, which is in turn important in providing a Personal Relationship for the audience, as part of the theory of uses and gratifications. What this all means together in practical terms is that the audience must recognise and enjoy the artist, or they won't want to buy their media products. Thus, we tried to include images of the artist even inside the digipak, and tried to convey certain traits associated with the band purely through the visuals of the inside of the digipak. The images display the band members happy or messing around, as in the video, and the props are all colourful and quirky, with some even referencing other pieces of media like the music video does, such as the ghost from successful arcade game Pac-Man. This creates an effective combo of video and digipak even when the audience is looking further into the media products, past the surface of the music video and the front of the album.

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The back cover is the main vehicle for all of the practical information to do with the album and artist. It is a little different from the rest of the digipak, by virtue of being a little bit simpler and more practical due to convention and design. However, by the time people reach this cover, they will have already been attracted by the front cover and possibly also the inside spread, and are now seeking more information on the artist that has captured their attention. This is where the back cover steps in and comes into its own, offering information on the album itself, as well as pointing the audience member to the artist's website and thus the hub of all information and media products of the artist- and, crucially, many purchasing opportunities.

The back of the album, despite arguably being less visually interesting than other parts of the digipak by necessity and convention, still does a lot in combination with the music video, and indeed other media products. Firstly, it shows off the names of the tracks, including the debut single which the music video is built around, and which is likely to be one of the largest draws for the audience. It also contains the URL of the website, a good use of cross media convergence, in that someone who picks up the album in a shop or similar can then visit the website through this experience, and from there can further get immersed in the band due to the website's use as a hub for the artist. This is a very effective combo.

The back cover of the digipak album cover works with the music video through the uses and gratifications theory of Blumler and Katz. The front cover and to an extent the inside spread both fulfil most parts of this theory, as does the music video itself, as they deal with identity and visuals which makes up the Diversion, Personal Relationships, and Personal Identity sections of the theory, but crucially they don't do much towards the Surveillance section of this theory. This part states that the audience might choose and use a media product if it fulfils their need for useful information and thus gratifies them. The back cover is mostly a vehicle for necessary and useful information to do with the artist, such as the track listing and website mentioned above, as well as record label(s,) barcode, legal information, and more. Thus the back cover effectively works in tandem with the music video and the rest of the digipak by covering yet another base in order to provide everything the audience might want in a single artist's brand and package.