SUBSIDIARY CONTENT OF A DIGIPAK

SUBSIDIARY CONTENT OF A DIGIPAK

The subsidiary content of a digipak is the less-important information which is used on the album cover to appeal more to the audience as well as creating meaning and significance to the appearance of the digipak, and making it professional.

When researching the subsidiary content of a digipak, I came across 'Q' magazine in order to help me understand the necessary usage of subsidiary information in my digipak. I found that there are multiple features of which I need to include on my digipak in order to show that our album is a professional product and that appeals to the audience.

I came across certain aspects on the magazine such as 'top albums of the year' and I believe that this will help us as we can utilise certain techniques and aspects from their subsidiary content and incorporate it into our digipak.
For example, when the magazine describes or reviews the album this could be used on the digipak so the audience know that the influential magazine think that the album is good and encourages people to buy the product; the subsidiary content is what persuades the audience to be interested in an artists music and the album review from a magazine would help do this.

Here you can see a random album review from Q magazine which we could gain influence from and create our own Q magazine album review and use it on our digipak...
A review like this would be perfect on our digipak as it shows the album and title and gives a brief review on the album and how they think its good, encouraging audiences to buy the album, and also gives it a rate out of 5 stars.

We could incorporate a review which discusses live performances as well as the acoustic version for example, as well as things like special features or remixes, all of which is subsidiary content.

When it comes to subsidiary content of albums and digipak's, the use of extra information for synergy purposes is also important because it causes the fans to gain a relationship and connection to the album and the artist. For example, the use of the artists favourite lyrics from the album and putting them on the digipak will be useful as the audience will learn about the lyrics and the meaning behind the songs before even listening to it and the will allow the audience to learn whether they are interested in the themes of the album or not.

Artists do this often on their digipak's and for example this is seen on Taylor Swifts deluxe digipak for her album '1989'.

Here she has included a quoted lyric from one of the songs on her album as well as the artists name and the title of the single. The use of doing this and having a lyric on the digipak allows audiences to understand what the album or song is about before even listening to it and build their 'set of expectations' (Neale 1980).

This is important to include because it creates synergy for the artist and builds up the franchise of the album allowing audiences to build a connection and attachment to the album and the songs. I think we will get inspiration from this for our digipak...


Other subsidiary aspects of a digipak include...

• parental warning signs
• barcode
• price
• order of the songs