A digipak is a paper packaging for CD singles and albums that includes artwork related to the music. The first digipak was created by MeadWestVaco and their patented design became popular with artists and consumers. Today, digipaks are commonly used for most physical CDs and albums. Artists benefit from digipaks because the visual artwork represents the album's content and helps promote the music by appealing to a larger audience through eye-catching designs that contribute to the listening experience.

1. Digipak Research
By Ryan Semanshia

2. What Is A Digipak?
A digipak consists of the artwork and packaging that accompanies CD
singles or CD Albums. The majority od digipaks are produced in a book-
fold style, meaning that once opened the CD itself is made accessible
along with the adjacent artwork which may or may not have been
inspired by the CD Compilation. Digipaks are more commonly
appearing as paperback sleeves and covers as opposed to the more
generic plastic CD casing.

3. Digipak Origins
The first ever Digipak was created by “MeadWestVaco” and their
product is patented and trademarked. Their design quickly began to
gain popularity with both artists and consumers which led to the
creation of a multitude of digipak designs and adaptations. This
enabled other artists, labels and manufacturers to create their own
digipaks whilst respecting the nature of MWV’s patent on the original
design. Today Digipaks are extremely common, being deployed for
most physical CD’s and albums.

4. How Do Artist’s Benefit From Digipaks?
The digipak acts as a visual representation of the albums media
content, this is most effectively explained by Kanye West when asked
about the creative processes involved in creating a digipak, to which he
replied simply, “I have to make sure that this artwork looks like how the
album sounds”. Varying from artist to artist, some choose to include
their likeness within the artwork whilst some prefer to pursue a more
abstract style relating to the music. An effective digipak helps the artist
by promoting the album and enabling the project to appeal to a larger
audience due to their eye catching nature, artwork also contributes to
the consumers listening experience.