Conventions of magazine adverts for digipaks

Name of artist/album:

The two images shown here are of Jessie J's album and magazine advert "Who you are" and both present the name of the artist and album in the same way, with the same font size, type and colour for both artist name and album, typically, Jessie J's artist name rarely changes font or colour, if at all, as it acts as a brand identity for that artist.
This shows that the artist has thought about her methods of being recognised, as she has chosen her artist name to be the feature most recognised on her digipak cover and magazine advertisement.
Her clothing, hair and make up style suggests she prefers wearing all black which can connote she is a mysterious/sinister figure which I do not think her music necessarily represents. However black is also a colour that suits gold well, which is the colour of the title, and gold against a black background can be eye catching to the audience, this may be seen as an advertisement technique through using the colour of the clothes and make up she wears in order to make a contrasting magazine advert and digipak to make the features more eye catching to the audience.


Another example of an album and magazine advert is one made by Example "Playing in the Shadows", who's album and advert are completely different in terms of imagery, however in terms of representation they share similarities, i.e. the artist is caught between light and shadow, more so in the magazine advert the first letter of the artist is also caught between shadow and light, which is a visual representation of the artist. This magazine advert is also different because it only displays the artist's name, the album and the date it is released, no other information is given which I find quite odd. Furthermore I do like the album cover and magazine advert as the colours both match each other, the artist's background is yellow on both the album and magazine advert which shows an eye catching similarity which could stay in the audience's mind as it is a bright colour against a dark background.

 Release date:

Many albums feature this as a use of marketing in order to alert the target audience as when their new albums are released and on which day they are able to buy them. Also depending on how successful or revered the artist is it can also build up hype or excitement amongst the audience who would like to buy the album.

For example, this magazine ad to the left shows a release date at the bottom of it, with a message telling the audience to "Pre-order your copy now", this is done as a way of generating more sales from audiences, as they know the exact date it is released.

Brand identity:

This is used as a form of recognition of which artist it is and which album they are listening to and is also used in other areas of consumerism and products, for example McDonald's golden arches are a signature logo for McDonalds and is widespread and recognised throughout a large proportion of the world.
An example of brand identity would be Jessie J's name as I have said above, as it features in the same font, colour, and size on both the album cover and magazine advert, this enables audiences to recognise which albums are by her.
But, brand identity doesn't just have to be names:

For example, what the band Green Day have done here as a form of brand identity is that they have taken an image of themselves, and portrayed it in such a way as to make it unique to themselves, so that when a member of their target audience sees their album cover, they immediately know it is Green Day, and they have done this through an image of themselves, and then placing crosses on their eyes, this simulates that they are dead.
Furthermore, some artists such as Green Day, use logos or symbols as a brand identity, for example Jessie J's artist name, or Green Day's portrayals of themselves.

More info:

Used on the magazine adverts as a way of telling the consumer or target audience where they can go to learn more about the artist, or the album that is soon to be released.

For example, Green Day have placed on their advertisements a substantial amount of information nearing the bottom half, including information about singles and their other albums in order to try and entice their audiences to buy more or show interest in their other music. They have also added websites on the bottom right such as www.greendayuk.net and www.makepovertyhistory.org which help the audience to find places where they can obtain more information about the band.
Gig and tour dates are also included within more information as it is another way of telling the audience when they can listen to their music live, these are found only on the magazine adverts as they give information that may interest some of the audience and lead them on to find out more about it.
One feature that some artists also do which wins over the audience is support charities, such as the band Green Day have done above, by including the link to Make Poverty History, thus showing their support of the charity and in some ways could gain public favour from that.

Review/ratings:

This provides a way of attracting more consumers to buy their album, as if it is given a good rating by critics then people trust this as a good album of music and are more liable to buy it. Especially if the album contains a chart rated number 1 song because sharing information such as that with the general public increases interest in the album significantly due to the popularity of aspects such as that number 1 song included in that album.


An example of this is Adele's album, who's album title is a number one song from the top charts, this is often done to attract customer attention and popularity, as it tells the general public that a really well rated/reviewed song is included if they are interested in that type of music genre.

 

 

 

Band/recording studio label:

This is on every magazine advert and album for artists as the recording studio is important for the artists to get their music out to the public and can usually be found on the bottom of the magazine advert and on the back of the album. They must do this because the recording studios are the institutions that record these artist's music and publish it, without the recording studio they would not be able to produce albums.
For example, Mercury Records are one particular label who have helped publish many big name artists, such as The Killers, Rihanna, Jennifer Lopez and Elton John.