MUSIC DESIGN & PACKAGING - your opinion?

Hello Pink Floyd fans,

my name is Alexander Mertsch, I'm 30 and a designer for music CD artwork & packaging. I am currently in the middle of opening up my own design agency here in Hamburg and get supported by a wonderful project which helps me establishing it.
The following 4 days I will have to find out more about the industry I am going to work for and its customers, so I created a survey with six simple questions which takes not more than 3 or 4 min of your time to complete. You were of HUGE support and help if you could go through the following form.

Survey Music & Artwork

...and hit the 'next question' button at the end of the form (I just couldn't figure out how to change it into 'send').

Dear moderators, please, keep this up for four days from now. Your support is much needed.

You don't have to sign-up, leave an email address or your name. It is NOT advertising or spam.

This survey is very easy to use and anonymous. It's only for my own use and will not be forwarded to any third parties.

Thanks a lot for your help. It is much appreciated. If you want to know more about me, you can see my profile at http://www.bsights.de/app/contact.htm.

Cordially,
Alex

Noway!

Ok, I did it.

Me too. I don't know how will this help practically, but whatever.

It helps, trust me.

I should probably go more into detail about the sense of this survey. I did not want to overstrain your nerves before.

As most of you know, the music industry is facing huge problems. One can't deny that thru the new ways of copying music like the mp3 format and fast and easy CD burn technologies, the sales of music products are going down. Some will say that's the fault of the music industry itself, and I couldn't agree more with you, esp. when I look at the mainstream market with all its hilarious slaves of the Big Five, Warner, Sony/Columbia, BMG etc.. These labels are out for the money, they have been ignoring the dangerous development for years and are now facing the problems.

But it's not just the Big Five, it's also the smaller companies like independent and reissue-labels which suffer from the trend, even though they usually carry the better and more honest products in their catalogs. So, you gotta come up with a strategy that calls a halt to the development of copying music, that calls a halt to faceless music in form of an mp3 or a burnt disc. Copy kills music. And this is where my 'idea' comes in.

I believe that good, intelligent, beautiful design, packaging and extras of a music CD are becoming more interesting and important for the decision to buy a CD instead of burning or downloading it. Music needs a face - along with the music itself it's the design that makes a band or musician. Pink Floyd are a very good example for this. Or Peter Gabriel.

Of course, it's the msuic that counts. But what would The Dark Side of the Moon be without it's design?

Alex

i took the survey as well. I hate the thought of buying music in other formats such as mp3 and what not... I'll never do it. I'd rather support the record companies.

You're right there!

I've bought ten original Elton John CD's (those of the early seventies, when he could still write amazing pop songs). The "classic years remasters" come with extra tracks, all the original artwork and fully explanatory liner notes giving details about the recording and about each track. On top of this they're not very expensive (no more than 15 euros) so, for me, this is the perfect combination. In fact, my brother downloaded for me the only album I can't find yet ("Caribou") but I will buy it anyway.

On the other hand, I bought Jon Anderson's "Olias of Sunhillow" yesterday and all the original artwork and liner notes (quite amazing on vinyl) are lost.

Sony tried selling music in beautiful packaging with newly enhanced sound to consumers in their SACD reissue campaign, and it seems to have fallen on its face. I think the record labels are sadly starting to give up on the physical presentation of music as an artform. There will always be artists who care about the packaging, and for that reason it is important that people continue to devote time and attention to it. But it's not something I personally would be brave enough to invest my money in.

I did it. Hope it helps.

OK Alex... I did it as well.

Mind you that my answers may be a bit biased as I'm in the middle of producing my first solo CD.....and the packaging is giving me nightmares... it's soooo much easier to make the music..

Fulghum,

if you need help, drop me a line and tell me about your problems with the design. Let's see if I can help you out with your questions.

Alex

I did it too Alex,and added a bit lenghty talk in others section.I'm not gonna be sold on mp3.IMHO,there is definitley a strong support for good packaging and design elements in a cd.I for one do buy CD's that have rather a nice artwork (of course the music comes first) and overall set.

We're getting it pretty well dialed.. It was just a bit of a headache getting it this far..

http://www.pinkfloydfan.net/t8882-available-music-store-near-you.html

340 people took the survey, within 5 days. That's quite impressive. The overall tenor is very positive. I can't reveal all the numbers but I can tell you that a lot of people do like the combination of good music & good design I am glad I included an extra text field - 50 people used it and expressed their valuable opinions. Again, I am impressed.

Thank you, Pink Floyd fans, for your support! And thank you, moderators, for keeping this up!

The survey is closed now

The survey is still open and anyone who wants to fill it out is welcomed! The feedback was so good that I decided to leave this open, esp. to get a better, even more realistic statistic. You been great, people! Thanks so much