For some bands there is definitely more than just the music.
But I'm an old school guy who buys CDs...

Hi Jason. Long time listener, first time caller :) Great article, you make some very strong points.

As someone who designs a lot of music packaging, this is definitely an issue that concerns me. I've built my career on this niche, and though I've diversified to a degree, it's still a core business. As you suggest, the design of an album, and the image of an artist transcends the packaging, especially with large amounts of exposure; those image become tied to the public consciousness of the music to which it's associated. This association combines with other visuals used in the promotion and community aspects of the artist to form an impression on the user. Even if there's no physical packaging, an image is always inextricably tied to the music as part of the user experience, and therefore as part of the brand of the artist, the project, and usually of both.

Within the music industry, some are downplaying packaging (at least economically), while others are embracing the ability to create something of tangible value by innovating in packaging as an incentive to purchase a physical product.

Time will tell which approach will win out, but in the end there's always a place for design in the realm of music, as long as people have eyes and ears in the same head.

Kevin, your comments are valued here, especially since you're an industry practitioner. One thing that this essay does not address is the issue of control. When working on an album for Bob Dylan in 2004, Mr. Dylan's management team controlled so much of the look, dictating what photos could be used (and couldn't). One caveat made, for instance, was that Mr. Dylan could not be smiling in any of the images. This type of control may disappear, as musicians take control of the image you mention above. At the same time, musicians may decide to design the items entirely on their own. As you say, Time will tell...

There is always a place for design, but will it be a cooperative between a designer working with musicians? A singular effort completed by the designer as musician, or musician as designer, or musician with designer's skills?

Jason, you've just scratched the surface there... this is nothing new. The artist always wants to have a hand in the design process on their own projects, whether Bob Dylan or Joe Schmoe, and the more successful they are, the more likely that is to happen. Sometimes this can be good, sometimes it can be bad, and I've seen both happen. Anyway, it's seldom been my own focused vision that's prevailed in the end product, as there are multiple parties to approve everything simultanously in most cases (label, management, artist, etc). More often than not, this results in compromises that water down the creative, but occasionally - and I depend on these moments - its the combination of ideas that become greater than the sum of its parts. And then there are those rare occasions, which hopefully will increase along with my skill to create them, that my vision survives this process unadulterated by compromises. It sounds awful when I put it like that, but somehow it's not :)

Anyway, as with most such issues in our industry, I hold to the belief that quality— and clients' desire for it— will win out in the end over the DIY mentality.

The article is another story of tradition versus technological innovation. It was not too long ago and people were swooning over the abilities of digital photography and neglecting film. Next was the loss of the cozy sound of the needle scratching over the record for "improved" sound quality. Now it is the album art people are abandoning for the mp3. The sound quality may not be the loss now, but the tanglible is. Perhaps the next solution to this will be a "print your own" album pdf.

Super essay dude; and interesting to hear your insiders take Kevin.

RE:
Time will tell which approach will win out, but in the end there's always a place for design in the realm of music, as long as people have eyes and ears in the same head.

When MP3s first infiltrated my music collection, I realized that I was being used in a war between the objects and the non-objects. The non-objects (i.e. MP3s, ebooks, etc.) appeal to my sense of convenience and economy - so much easier to distribute the ones and the zeros than the horrible plastic of the CDs.

The objects, however, while cumbersome and expensive to produce have the opportunity to appeal to my sense of beauty in a way that MP3s and websites (at least in their current state, and I say that as a web designer) never ever can.

BUT: the objects got to step it up, like you detail in the essay above - they gots to get more beautiful. For the most part, CDs were a terrible weapon in the objects arsenal - most of them are terribly ugly.

Radiohead is obviously well entrenched in this war, and might possibly be a band that can bring the two sides together.

Cheers guys.

Packaging is essentially wasteful here. I miss it, too, but how much garbage does digital music prevent? Remember the long boxes CDs came in for the first 5-10 years?

CDs themselves are a burden if they're wasted (i.e. thrown away instead of given away [LaLa]) and the jewel case is downright stupid 90% of the time. Things have been done to ease this burden; things like Digipaks and fold-up packaging where the art is the packaging.

Like it's been said, design and music will always coexist so, (difficult clients aside) I feel it's mostly the designers duty to research and implement these different options. Printing things on recycled stock and of course creating such a wonderful design that people won't want to throw it away! I have a lot of CDs and plan on keeping them on my shelf so for me it's about balancing that indulgence with sustainability and aesthetics.

My personal prediction (and remember I'm not a actually a psychic) is that if we don't find a way to make CDs more economical people will just revert to records. I don't think digital music will ever take over.

The remarks regarding sustainable design raises a great point about the benefits of the immaterial realm of the digital. However, we can have both.

The movement is driven by the consumers choice, but the designer must provide more choices. Recycled material, great aesthetics, or optional download of pdf booklet are all great solutions to offer the consumer. The consumer should be left with multiple options of making a sustainable purchase. It shouldn't be green or no green. If we don't design the options, they can't choose.

Thomas, I am so glad you brought up this point, as we continue to look for creative ways to be conservative as designers. I for one, am interested in the topics you mention above.

I've been saying for a long time, to my inner circle, that the only thing that is going to save the non-digital music industry, is a heightened care for design and packaging.

But the packaging issue is really a side note in the overall relationship between image and music. As Jason noted, there is a huge relationship in how an image can give a certain set of songs a strong identity that is as recognizable visually as it the album is aurally. Stanley Donwoods art being a fine example. In fact, this visual identity model is the only thing that is going to save the idea of the "record" at all.

For a while, as packaging was disintegrating, it seemed like the visual side of music was fast disappearing as well. But thanks to Itunes and new features like Cover Flow, the visual side of albums seems to have a glimmer of hope for survival.

Already I can see album art becoming more and more important is the perceived identity for song groupings. I have even taken to making my own album art for collections of one-off songs that didn't have any supplied by the artist or labels, because I just couldn't stand to see the default "no artwork" icon in my cover flow.

I can only hope and imagine this re-emergence of visuals in music becomes stronger and stronger as our devices for digital music become more powerful, iPod Touch is only the begginning.

Maybe soon, we will see the static digital image come alive as motion graphics become as indelible to the music as LP art once was, all the while resurrecting the music video from the grave of MTV.

And for the record... iPod touch lets you touch a screen, a slick and smooth surface. You will not be able to handle the new Radiohead album itself using that tool [at least, not to my knowledge, unless they have something in the works we've not seen yet!].

I submit the current hand-made gigposter trend as a viable music/design connection that neatly satisfies a perceived aesthetic void and somewhat fills in the tactile gap.

It's no coincidence that this medium has taken off just as music packaging appears to stagnate.

Has music packaging stagnated? Maybe you mean innovative music packaging, or new directions for packaging like JPEGs and iTunes' coverflow. Packaging is still out there. But does it matter as much?