Analysing a magazine advert.

This is a magazine advert for the Manic Street Preacher's 2009 album, Journal for Plague Lovers.

Let's analyse!!

• The main image is of a young child, with the drawing making the child look beaten and bruised. This could represent the raw emotion felt through in the album
• It distinguishes music and lyrics. This is because the band took lyrics from one of their former band mates, who disappeared without a trace 14 years previously in 1995. To use his lyrics again adds to the emotion, as it makes people remember him, and also contributes to the atmosphere felt on the album.
• The release date is there to let fans know when it is available.
• The producer is listed to add more prolificness. Steve Albini, regarded as a very talented producer who has worked on loads of famous albums. His name could alter people's opinions on the album.
• There's cross promotion with Amazon, as they are stated to having the album.
• The website is listed for self promotion of the band, as a subtle way to get people to go there so they can keep up with what the band are doing.

Researching Marketing Tools - Digipaks!

 A Digipak is a patented style of optical disc packaging. They usually consist of a gate fold (book style) paperboard or card stock outer binding, with one or more plastic trays capable of holding a CD or DVD attached to the inside.

Digipak style packaging is often used for CD singles or special editions of CD albums and the tall DVD Digipak is used as a premium package for DVDs and DVD sets.

Two notable albums with Digipak's are Stadium Arcadium by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West.

What would I expect to find on a Digipak

Here are a few things that generally will feature on a Digipak.

• Bold Images on the front and back panels, these are the two main promoters and will draw people in.
• Front will usually tend to have the artists name in bold, with another bold image accompanying it, to attract people to it.
• Inside the Digipak will feature the disc itself and perhaps artwork different to the art on the front and back of the Digipak. Also things that could be featured are lyrics, artist information and personal messages. 

Analysis of Digipak

This is the Digipak for Stadium Arcadium.

What I found

• Their is a lot of bright colours, used to be aesthetically pleasing.
• The colours of blue, red and purple all mix into one another, suggesting the songs mixing into each other and flowing one after another.
• The image on front cover could be meaning to show a bands progression or distancing themselves from other bands of the same genre or their own discography.
• The appearance of the band on the back could be for the benefit of their new fans, so they can now put a face to who plays the instruments.
• The images go with a space theme, suggesting literal spacing with the band, or could be linked again to distance, suggesting the band is far different from earlier releases.