Judging an Album by its Cover

Images have always had an important role to play in communication; perhaps even more so now with the rise of the Internet and all of its visual possibilities. When used effectively, images can create a meaning beyond what simple words can express. In the online world, images can also serve a functional role in aiding with navigation and maintaining the "authenticity" of the online experience with the real-world one. One interesting example of this is the use of album covers in music websites and online stores.

An album cover is a representational illustration that was logically packaged with a record or CD to enhance the overall artistic product. These images helped to create an iconography for what was otherwise a strictly aural experience, and they also defined and set apart each album in a visual sense. However, with the advent of the MP3 and digital downloading, album covers were no longer needed in the same way. One can buy and listen to an album without ever needing to know what the CD cover looks like, yet digital album covers are still frequently used in the online music marketplace.

Within digital stores such as iTunes, album covers can function as icons in helping with navigation. Taking a look at the screenshot below, we can see the album covers dominate the storefront:

By clicking on each cover, we are taken to the corresponding page where that album can be actually purchased, as seen here after clicking on one of the images:


By using the album cover as the means for online navigation and purchasing, the online music buying experience is linked to the real world, recreating the feeling of being in a physical record store and rummaging through the CD's and glancing at the different covers.

This use of album covers as icons for navigation can also be seen in music review websites such as Pitchfork, as seen below on a section of their homepage:

Each cover is a corresponding link to a review for that album or track. However, unless the title and band name are actually included within the image, you must scroll over the album cover to see this information. As seen below, when the album on the far right is scrolled over, the artist and album name are displayed along with the corresponding review score:


This does not seem to add much in terms of ease of navigation, as it would be easier to see the artist and album name by just listing it as text without the corresponding image. However, by using the album cover, Pitchfork is maintaining the visual traditions of the art being packaged with the music to create one unified product. This can also be seen in their individual album review pages, which all prominently display the album cover, as seen here:



This last online use of album covers fulfills their traditional role as representational illustrations that create a visual iconography to be associated with the music. By keeping with this tradition, Pitchfork and other music websites are maintaining the richness and credibility of music consumption by making the online experience similar to the real world one.