Conventions of CD album covers

Linkin Park – Living Things

Main image takes up most of the cd cover

Minimalism is used: cover is very bare, showing only what is needed/getting straight to the point

CD title and name of the band (top of the cover) is small, modern and very modest; not “in-your-face” at all

BarcodeSong names/ contents

Copyright & address of record label

Record label icons

Main image/content image

Main image takes up most of the cover, brightly coloured and bold

Muse – The Resistance

Title of the album, again small and modest

The bands name is the biggest text on the front album cover. Placed at the top left corner

Image of the band, blurred (distorted like the genre of the album)

Barcode

Copyright & Record company address + record label icons

Track listings

These are two contrasting examples: the first is minimalistic, using bland colours and photo of a single person (with some effects going on) whereas the second uses bright colours to draw people’s attention.

Both were very successful commercially, indicating that this colour scheme/layout worked (to some extent at least).

On both covers, the album titles and band names are in quite small font. This is probably because they are two well known bands and don’t need to advertise their name as much to gain attention.