Ancillary products

In class, we discussed the importance of Digipacks and their functions in the music industry. A digipack is a modern approach to the CD's packaging. It has only been in the industry for the past decade. It is made from thick cardboard to make it sturdy and hard to damage, it contains a lot more information about the artist, giving the customer who has payed extra for the digipack some extras that you don't get when you purchase online or just a normal CD case. This 'adds value' to the digipack which is why it is always more expensive than the plain cd pack. The digipack is aimed to interest the big fans of the music artist. 

Even though there has been a large decline in the sales of digipaks, this is more likely because the digipacks are only aimed for the true and big fans. 

The best part about digipacks are that they help combat piracy as they cannot be copied or dowloaded online as you can't recieve the extra features that the digipacks provide. This is what encourages fans to buy the digipacks which is therefore supporting the artist and helping the music industry in the long run. Ancillary products are very important to the artists and the industry as they are a crucial amount of profit. Audiences rely on advertisement that surrounds us on buses, billboards and on our televisions, we have relied so much on it now, that there is no other way we would hear about the artists and newest songs or acts without it.

Some of us mentioned how the digipack could be seen as an expression of art and a representation of what the audience should expect of the artist. Ultimately, as the fans of the music and the art of the digipacks, the combination of both would bring in a lot of customers from the large fan basses of the artist as well as people who have not heard of them before, if they see the cover and like the style, they may be interested to buy it. And so, it is very important to draw in the audience with an attractive and eye catching digipack. 

Digipacks are also a very good way of changing an artists image and even their music. As the picture on the front, represents the style of music that will be played in the cd. It is a way that the artist can change their look, yet keep their style of music or change their image completely just from the the digipack. Here are a few album covers that express artists in different ways.