Back when I used to download music from Kazaa, I was pretty committed to making sure I had every track from an album. Once the album was complete after hours of downloading via a dial-up connection, I would burn the album to cd in the exact track order. Aside from the album art and cd label, this was as close to an exact replica of the original as I could get without paying for it. As my pile of forged albums grew, I noticed a pattern to my listening habits. I was passing up the burned discs in favor of music that I owned. It wasn’t a lack of quality in the digital files. My cheap headphones couldn’t tell the difference. It wasn’t guilt over my file sharing habits or fear of a raid on my cd collection by the RIAA. Something else was bothering me.

I passed the cds up because I hated the fact that the title was hand-written on the front of the disc. To compensate for the negative connotation these burned cds had I started making custom labels for each cd. I didn’t spend much time on my labels, I just combined an image, color and some text. It was simple, but it helped my brain from discriminating against these cds.

(Click on the cds above to see a bigger version of some of my favorite album art exercises.)

The day I bought my iPod was the last time I made a label for a cd. I thought that this amazing little machine would finally free me from the tyranny of album art since there would be nothing but the name of the song and the music. I could listen to the songs without any influence from art or design. I thought that was a good thing, but after a couple of years of iPod listening I found myself craving the artwork. Just like I needed some art on my burned cds, I wanted something visual to compliment the music. Rather than buying cds, I made a slightly more extreme move and started collecting vinyl. Needless to say, I fell in love with the poster size artwork and the very tactile nature of records.

As fun as vinyl is, I can’t avoid digital music and still love my iPod. Today I keep track of new music through a subscription to iTunes RSS feeds. Next to each album title is a thumbnail image of the cover art. Since this is my main source of new music, I can’t help but react to the artwork as I explore new artists. I haven’t splurged for a new iPod yet, but when I do, I will be blessed by the new color screens. Once again, every album will be tied to album art because the cover image will be displayed next to each song.

It is kind of funny that even though album art has shrunk from the poster sized art of vinyl records to less than a half inch on the screen of an iPod it still has a very important role. As digital music becomes the norm, it will be interesting to see the new ways that visual art is used to enhance the music. If one thing is certain, it is that design will never be far apart from music. Like everything else, design will enhance - or if it is done poorly it detracts from - the experience.

What I am really trying to say is go download the new iTunes. Seriously, Cover Flow is amazing.