November 24, 2011 / candicedunlap

Liner Notes As Packaging Design

I’ve been meaning to post this train of thought for a while, but life and recent surgery complications have been the priority lately! But here tis:

Now I’m all for technology advancement, and heck, when mp3s first came around (and I was in high school – sigh) I was the first one to burn all my CDs to my hard drive (and buy a larger drive) so I could easily listen to them, and when ipods came around, upload them to my ipod.

The changes in the “music industry” intrigue and excite me, but the decline of CD sales (and manufacturing) makes me sad. Let me explain.

I love liner notes. I love packaging design.

I would spend hours listening to CDs and reading the liner notes, from the lyric booklets to the credits/dedications at the end. This was how I found out who the other people involved in making music were. It was like a hunt for more information. You know, before Wikipedia. When I bought my first CD, it came in a long box with the CD inside. It was like opening a present, except you knew what you were getting inside. I could identify a CD case by its spine and easily find the one I was looking for on my CD shelf or rack.

CD packaging has evolved from the default plastic case to cardboard/recycled material, to even elaborate box-sets that are like works of art. (Some, like Tori Amos’ tour set, include both the recycled cardboard packaging and the plastic outer shell.

Tori Amos Live Box Set

Then there are the highest end sets, such as the Burton/Elfman box)

(My) Elfman/Burton Box Set, not yours!

With digital-only sales, the liner note booklet is going the way of the dinosaur. Digital booklets in PDF-form just aren’t the same. I could make one of those myself.

And in an increasingly digital-only age, how much longer are CD’s even going to be created? I’m not sure exactly how much cause there is for freaking out just yet – records (LP’s) are still being made.

Is the LP too outdated to keep making? I have box sets from Radiohead and Placebo that came with multiple CD’s and LP’s. I’m not a DJ. I’d probably never listen to the records if they didn’t have b-side material on them. Why waste the money making them?

The answer: because people buy them. Some people still do, anyway. It’s the same case for CD’s: people still buy them, so companies keep making them.

A few other packaging faves that I’ve collected:

Lord of the Rings Extended Soundtrack (Did I mention my senior music history paper in college was basically what this set has for liner notes? Yes I'm a wannabe musicologist. Look it up.)