The above picture is made up of 12 album covers that I own either physically or digitally. After looking at these (and a few more that wouldn't fit), I found a few similarities between them:- Artist name on front cover has the largest presence
- Name of album on the front cover in most cases
- Some feature the artist on the front cover
- Little imagery on the front cover
- Simple backgrounds (often black or white)
- Front cover is either one photograph or a graphic
- Artist and album name on the spine
- Spine and back often attached together
- Back has list of tracks, sometimes with track numbers
- Barcode on back cover
- Institutional information on back cover e.g. record label, copyrights
- Websites of artist and record company on back cover
- They enable listeners of an artist's music to find their albums
- They appeal to fans of an artist
- They often have conventions of the album's music genre
- They attract people who may not be aware of an artist's work
- They enable people to describe an album e.g. Weezer has 3 albums called "Weezer" but fans refer to their specific albums by the colour of the covers
- They enable buyers to organise their music easily
