Today, when music is consumed online, the cover has become just another element of the marketing campaign, along with music videos, merch and photo shoots.
At the same time, the design is increasingly subject to the general concept of advertising, which looks quite simple: a photo of the artist, a large text with the name of the release. In part, it can be said that the covers today have become more stylish, but in essence they have returned to what they started with – the envelope and the text.
Despite this, buyers are still interested in the details about the release. This listener interest led to the appearance of such a thing as a “digital booklet”. The large PDF file downloaded with the release contains not only information about the tracks and participants in the recording, but also active links to media and social networks, photos and even advertising. Therefore, many people use the album cover maker.
What should the album cover be?
First impressions are the most important thing in the music industry. The way you present your music to listeners on the Internet (even before they even start listening to the tracks) is an element of drawing attention to you and your creativity. Many people choose music in the catalogs of streaming sites and online stores by cover art. The more interesting and unusual the art, the more attention it attracts, the higher the chance that someone will listen to the release.
To interest everyone, and especially to please society one picture will not work. Do not complicate your life by thinking about how to make an album cover and what it should be – first assess the common design options in your musical direction. Do not worry if you are not sure that the design ideas do not come to mind and you do not know which way you move. If you feel you have reached an impasse, do the following:
- look at the covers of artists close to you in spirit, or other groups that you like;
- think about what exactly you like and what you don’t like in selected art – so you will form a list of design requirements;
- check out artists blogs, designer accounts on Dribbble, Behance, and Deviantart, or check out Google’s pictures search;
- study what is currently popular among artists in your genre, what trends in cover design exist in the music industry today.
Don’t be afraid to borrow ideas or approach artists/designers directly. It is possible that one of them will respond and help in the design of the release. If there is no desire to look for a designer, then you can make the cover yourself, based on the principles that you identified when studying the art of other artists.
How to make an album cover yourself?
Since we do not involve designers and Photoshop is not the easiest service, free online photo editors will help. One of the best in this business is VistaCreate.
The most interesting thing about this service is that its creators anticipated the needs of modern musicians and created a number of blanks for the album cover. Due to the care of the developers, any musician can without leaving the house to create an excellent artwork for an album or single that would look no worse than if the release cover had been ordered from a professional designer.
