Let's face it; few music fans have ever preferred the CD booklet to the album sleeve. With CD sales continuing to drop, and downloads nowhere near replacing the shortfall in sales and revenues, could making the downloads more attractive to music fans help boost sales?

Fans have always wanted something special. Limited edition sleeves, picture discs, posters or a free 7" single have all been used by label marketers in the past to boost sales. So why is nobody trying the same tricks in the download space? In an increasingly crowded market could packaging be used to give your new release increased stand out? Would a more attractively packaged download encourage P2P downloaders to buy the real thing? After all, most download releases come with nothing more than a copy of the albums front cover. And as there's plenty of widgets that can get the cover art for you, hardly a problem. Wouldn't you think that someone would have looked at how to package a download, and to see if that was one way of making them more attractive?

Well, some labels think they may have the answer by producing a 'physical' product in the shape of a USB memory stick. Some of these little critters are really attractive (see these White Stripes examples, above). But what about the rest of the packaging? Is all we really want a flashy outer-casing? And once you have a few hundred of these pesky USB keys, how will fans use or display them? And importantly in this day and age, is it a particularly green way to release your music?

The second options to provide something for free with the download.

I finally got around to downloading LCD Soundsystem's excellent album of music to exercise to. Nike commissioned the piece entitled 45:33, which was initially only available to download from iTunes via the Nike+ website. And as with an increasing number of album releases on iTunes, it comes with a downloadable booklet. But that's where the problems start! The booklet is simply a PDF facsimile of the CD booklet. Fine you may think but, this has got to be be the most uninspiring piece of packaging I've ever seen. And it's not just this particular release. I've yet to see any digital booklet that looks like it has been designed for the computer rather than for a physical CD. And worst of all these booklets won't work on you iPod or MP3 player, which makes them virtually useless! 

citizensound says: 

It makes us wonder if labels still employed their own art departments, would download packaging have moved on? Would a new breed of digital artists and designers have been employed to develop exciting and innovative interactive packaging that added some real value to the listening experience?

Would something as simple as a karaoke functionality on the lyrics or an interactive gaming facility encourage younger music fans to pay for downloads, rather than bluetooth them from their mates in the playground?

And what do older fans like me want from this sort of packaging? In-the-studio footage of the album being recorded? Or access to technology (like U-MYX) that allows me to make my own mixes of my favourite tracks.

Let us know how what sort of packaging you would like to see attached to a music download…