Differences of a CD Case and a Digipak

Digipak

My group will be designing a Digipak in order to promote our music video. Digipak's are made mainly out of cardboard, but the disc tray itself is made from plastic. There are several strengths and weaknesses of using a digipak. A strength  is that unlike CD cases, they are made to unfold revealing an extra inside sleeve, in which we can insert further information or graphics we wish to associate with our band/music video, to further promote ourselves to audiences. A weakness, however, is that Digipak's are often criticized as they can't take as much wear and tear as CD cases and so ,for collectors, they are often unpopular. A final weakness is that with proliferation of hardware and content it is now easier for people to download music instead of purchasing it in stores and so a digipak may be more undesirable.

CD Case

CD cases are much more traditional than a Digipak. They're made completely from plastic and as a result are stronger than a Digipak. However, they are much less beneficial when it comes to quality of information as you often don't have a separate pullout booklet with a CD case. Instead, any additional information is often printed onto the reverse side of the front/back cover. This is a weakness due to the fact that audiences usually wont be able to view this side until they've already bought the CD and so, by this time, using the side for promotional purposes isn't necessary. As well as Digipaks CD's also face the problem that downloads from sites such as iTunes are becoming more preferable and so our audience will be instantly narrowed no matter which form of casing we choose.

I believe a Digipak is better because...

When comparing the benefits of a Digipak/CD case, I believe that a digipak is greatly better for self promotion. Adding to this, buyers/hardcore music fans are likely to want to collect band material/special edition digipaks/cases or other merchandise. As a result, digipaks become more desirable to the target audiences than CD cases. Furthermore, I believe our audience wouldn't be very traditional, as denoted by the survey responses which show that the target audience is made from young adults who enjoy newer rock/metal music; this means they wouldn't be into the traditional values of a normal CD case. Finally a Digipak allows us to include far more information about our band and our music video than a CD case would as it allows us to include artwork, lyrics. a track list, credits, information about the band and much more. All this will make it far more presentable to audiences, who, as a result will be more satisfied with their purchases and in the long term lead to them wanting to purchase the bands future work, as well as suggesting to others that they should also buy the product.