# How important is the 'cover art' to the purchase.



## John Lenin (Feb 4, 2021)

I like Bruckner... I like Klimt.... I like chicks... I like period instruments .... And I like purple...
I can't go wrong here surely...???

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61dzc5UHwOL._SY400_.jpg


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## Chilham (Jun 18, 2020)

You're welcome.

I think cover art is important. A "quality" and relevant or evocative image creates the impression of care being taken with production, and 'promises', or at least 'suggests', an enjoyable listening experience.

Your mileage may vary.


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## Fabulin (Jun 10, 2019)

I like this one


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## John Lenin (Feb 4, 2021)

Gergiev.... Slippery eel or snake in the grass


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

Two kinds of listeners.

One reads the liner notes, maybe googles the composer or conductor as the music plays in her music room. Covers matter to her.

The other downloads the files to her iPod and listens while running cross-country. She doesn't care.

Wildly inappropriate covers, or covers with negligible information, or covers printed too small for the human eye to see, are a concern to listener number one.


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## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

I have a particular fondness for the paintings of Caspar David Friedrich and have sometimes bought CDs because the booklet frontispiece has been one such. Not all the CDs in question have merited a regular spot in my listening time but this approach did lead to my discovering the wonderful symphony in E major by Hans Rott.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

The old Angel LPs came in plain (mottled) brown covers. Just the Angel logo, and the basic facts.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

An appealing cover is always advantageous, but it's the music that's important.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Recently covers have gotten my attention, in a negative way: *The Sound and the Fury* and *Beauty Farm*. I love the music they perform but hate the covers. It hasn't stopped me from enjoying the recordings since I stream them on Spotify - but they are a distraction.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Some people will agree with Bulldog but many people like the whole package. It’s like with cigarettes, the shape of the pack, holding it, reflecting on the lifestyle statement it’s making, matters big time to many people. You can see this clearly with vinyl.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

SanAntone said:


> Recently covers have gotten my attention, in a negative way: *The Sound and the Fury* and *Beauty Farm*. I love the music they perform but hate the covers. It hasn't stopped me from enjoying the recordings since I stream them on Spotify - but they are a distraction.


Yep.

I have noticed that the Warner Klemperer boxes have such a cool look, black and white covers with muted lettering, that they do suck me in. Those are the only covers that do that to me.


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

I think cover art was more important in the LP days when companies did things like this ...








It should be noted a lot of companies treated album covers the same way fashion magazines treated models on their covers.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

John Lenin said:


> I like Bruckner... I like Klimt.... I like chicks... I like period instruments .... And I like purple...
> I can't go wrong here surely...???


I hate to admit it, but I am VERY affected by cover art, to the degree that it can have an effect on all my subsequent listening. Sometimes if another cover-art is available, I'll get the art I like, even if I have the CD.
I did this with the NAXOS Robert Craft/Schoenberg series; I had to have the earlier KOCH covers, with the Gustav Klimt covers.


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

Mandryka said:


> It's like with cigarettes, the shape of the pack, holding it, reflecting on the lifestyle statement it's making, matters big time to many people.


Record collecting is A LOT like smoking. I can quit any time I want though.


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## Malx (Jun 18, 2017)

millionrainbows said:


> I hate to admit it, but I am VERY affected by cover art, to the degree that it can have an effect on all my subsequent listening. Sometimes if another cover-art is available, I'll get the art I like, even if I have the CD.
> I did this with the NAXOS Robert Craft/Schoenberg series; I had to have the earlier KOCH covers, with the Gustav Klimt covers.


Sad to admit I did something similar with the Chailly Mahler set - the individual discs take up more shelf space than the nonedescript box set but I like the covers.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

I've purchased discs because of appealing cover art. Generally, I will pick up something new, unknown, previously unheard because of an interesting cover; or, I will pick up something very familiar, a new interpretation of something I readily enjoy or collect, because of an interesting cover.

Offhand, I've probably bought more Arte Nova Classics albums because of cover art than music on any other label.









I bought the above disc shortly after hearing Tetzlaff play the Beethoven concerto in a concert at Heinz Hall with the Pittsburgh Symphony. Though I was interested in hearing the violinist once again, the cover nudged my purchase into the "sale" range.

I had never heard of Christian Cannabich prior to seeing this disc. I figured the cover would remain intriguing even if the music proved not to be.









And an album such as this one:









Who could resist at least looking at the disc. And then to see a combination of familiar and unfamiliar music, in a format (string quartet) that highly interests me, it was a no-brainer purchase. The cover leaves as much to ponder as does the music. A good thing.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

Malx said:


> Sad to admit I did something similar with the Chailly Mahler set - the individual discs take up more shelf space than the nonedescript box set but I like the covers.


Yes, many times I prefer the single CD to the box set.

On the John Cage Music for Keyboard, as soon as I saw a Japanese version with the original LP art, I had to have it, because it's the one I imprinted on.
Compare them for yourself:

Blah...

Yay!


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

I've bought more than one LP or CD because of the cover. Packaging matters a lot in marketing and so many classical outfits make it an afterthought. Of course the image has nothing to do with the quality of the product.


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist (Jan 13, 2019)

NoCoPilot said:


> Record collecting is A LOT like smoking. *I can quit any time I want though.*


That's what they want you to think.


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## Olias (Nov 18, 2010)

The recording is the most important consideration for me, but given a choice between several equally good recordings, the best cover seals the deal.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

I like covers that feature period art around the same time as when the music was composed or that of the composer.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Many of my CD's are repackaged duo's at cheaper than original release prices. I prefer more music for the price over the cover art.


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## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

NoCoPilot said:


> Record collecting is A LOT like smoking. I can quit any time I want though.


I'm addicted to brake fluid, but I can stop whenever I want to.


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## Guest002 (Feb 19, 2020)

For me, it's an association between music and the album art like imprinting on the music in the first place. If I'm browsing through a folder of music files, the album art thumbnails will tell me _exactly_ what the work is without me having to read the text in my file manager's various dialogue areas.

The association is so strong that I've done extensively what others have mentioned; never mind what album art the CD shipped with... what album art did the original LP come in?! Because often, that's preferable.

So, for example:









That's what my 1990s CD for Britten's _A Midsummer Night's Dream_ came as. It's black and white. It's got the name of the composer and work. It's got some people who you might not know who they are; including a side/back view of an undistinguished-looking bloke who's actually Britten. It's boring. It's monochrome. It's uninformative.

When I first got the LP boxed set out of the local library, it looked like this:









It's colourful. The work name is highly legibile. It's a picture of a wood, so you know the story's going to have something to do with wandering through a wood. It's also got the entire cast list printed: I don't need to poke inside my FLACs to find out who's singing what, it's right there in the album art.

So when I ripped the CD, it was tagged with the LP album art.

One other example:









My Turn of the Screw CD: monochrome, uninformative, something to do with a person who I might not know or recognise. The marketing department must have been taking a break that day. Here's what I actually tagged my ripped CD files with:









It's more colourful (a bit!); it's more informative, as the cast list is visible. It's got a ghostly figure appearing at a window and a woman terrified by the apparition: you already know something about the story.

And so on. I have strong imprinting on a lot of my music's _original_ art work, and will usually take that over later CD-specific designs, because -often- they are singularly boring and uninformative.


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## John Lenin (Feb 4, 2021)

Animal the Drummer said:


> I'm addicted to brake fluid, but I can stop whener I want to.


You say you can stop anytime you want but addiction can be a funny thing. I knew two guys, one was addicted to battery acid and one was addicted to eating fireworks, they couldn't stop. They were caught by the Police, one was charged the other was let off... Addiction can be strange


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## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

I've always purchased based on who is performing the music. The cover doesn't figure at all. Sometimes I also check the recording details as I'm not too fond of live recordings, especially if there is a cough that has become forever enshrined at a favourite moment.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

I've collected LP cover designs (such as those by Paul Huf or Bjørn Wiinblad, for example), but this has been the only reason to buy something because of a cover.

There's no doubt however, that a few labels have gained a lot of customers because of easily recognizable covers and a certain quality, or certain characteristics, associated with them, such as DG, ECM, or Wergo, for example.

And of course, a good cover can make you appreciate, or study, the (primary, actually) musical content further.


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## erki (Feb 17, 2020)

Covers are very important for me - so much that I have made many CD covers my own to replace the ones that disturb me too much. If I had a printer large enough many LP would be on that list as well.
I have about 20 LPs I got just for the cover art. The music on these is OK, but I hardly listen them. However enjoy to see them while flipping the stack.


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