Ancillary Products Introduction

What is a Digipack

On today’s lesson, I had an introduction to the Ancillary work. My teacher started off the lesson with a presentation saying ‘What is a Digipack?’, a Digipack is about adding value to the CD by making the customer feel that they are getting something extra and special. It plays on our love for music and how determined we are to buy things like these. It look very aesthetically pleasing because of the graphics used to illustrate the Digipack and to reflect the artist so that the customer is more persuaded to but it. The Digipack is also important to both the customers and the industry because it combats piracy because you cannot download a Digipack. 

What should the Digipack look like

Digipacks can consist of different numbers of panel’s form 4, 6, or 8 that fold outwards. The front cover of the Digipack clearly illustrates the name of the artist because the Digipack needs to promote the artist. It needs to be clear and easy to understand so that it doesn’t leave people feeling confused and struggling to make sense of it. It has special features like bonus tracks exclusively for the Digipack making it feel more special to the customer and making it better value for your money. And it needs pictures to covey the feeling of the song/album so that the customer has a familiarity with the artist and the songs.

The back cover consists of the production information like the blurb, copyright information and the year of production. It should also have the record label at the back cover and a web address and a barcode – following the conventional Digipack.

Inside the Digipack should have a consistency of design elements to make it look attractive.

Advertisement

In the advertisement it should include the Digipack so that the audience/customers know what to look out for when they go into shops like HMV to buy the Digipack. The advertisement should also include the release date and the same consistency of design elements. It should also include either review notes OR tour dates, and should have the record label. 

Why is the artwork popular

The artwork is popular for a number of reasons, and they are:

1. to create an identity/brand
2. to advertise the artist to create publicity so that everybody know who they are
3. to illustrate their personality
4. to illustrate genre
5. inspire customers/audience to feel empathy with the artist
6. to attract customers/audience and to attract new audiences and customers through the visuals, tempting them through the visuals hoping they might be persuaded by it
7. an expression of the artistic intent

How important are the ancillary products to the artist and the industry and in relation to the music video

The importance of the ancillary products is to the industry is that they can profit from the cost of Digipacks and can also branch out from different mediums so that they are not limited on how the influence their audience to buy these products. Also, by the means of advertising, it carries out the aim that everyone should hear and see the artist and their songs. It helps to combat piracy because you cant download a Digipack so it shows that when you buy a Digipack, you feel that you are getting something extra, value for your money.