The author examines how labels are working to re-create the feeling of the physical album cover online and highlights some of the examples. One example that immediately comes to mind is Apple Cover Flow. Cover Flow is nice enough, but in general I don't think this is the right direction.



The goal shouldn't be to replicate the way things are done in the real world on the Internet. Rather, the capabilities of the Internet should be utilized to create a new and more interesting context for the listening experience. In this equation the album art is less important than what happens with and around the music. Meaning how people, together with the artist/label, co-create the context.

So online it can be argued that the context of the music is the new cover art. The key is then to get the right infrastructure in place to enable interaction, and add the right content and design to make it happen. The most interesting example I have seen of this lately is the super cool SoundCloud player, which let's users add comments on the track timeline.

It's fascinating to see how the capabilities of the Internet are shaping the way music is created, distributed and consumed, and how this have lead to new rules for marketing and identity expression. However, here at NYLVI we're also a bit concerned about what is going on in the physical world and what is happening with the vinyl records we love so much.

So while the cover art is coming back in a brand new form on the Internet, there is also interesting stuff happening in the physical world. For reasons discussed here the technological advances have relieved us from the painful CD format, which has always been an ugly compromise between vinyl and streaming, lacking the flexibility and possibilities of streaming and the aesthetics and charm of vinyl.

What we are left with now are the two best options, which I think are highly compatible. It's therefore great to see how artists and labels have started to realize the potential of the vinyl format again.

Lately we have seen Fractured Recordings release Recovery, which is described by Pitchfork as: "a super-limited edition box set compilation with a simple but intriguing concept: take a bunch of well-known tunes and leave them to the mercy of the international avant-garde and minimalist vanguard."

There are also a bunch of other labels, such as London based AI Records, that are releasing awesome and visually stunning records, and this is something I feel confident that we will see more of in the coming years.

Vinyl will for sure remain a niche format, but it's worth paying attention to it, since it will, due to its unique characteristics, be one of the many building blocks of the new music industry gradually evolving.

The goal shouldn't be to replicate the way things are done in the real world on the Internet. Rather, the capabilities of the Internet should be utilized to create a new and more interesting context for the listening experience. In this equation the album art is less important than what happens with and around the music. Meaning how people, together with the artist/label, co-create the context.

So online it can be argued that the context of the music is the new cover art. The key is then to get the right infrastructure in place to enable interaction, and add the right content and design to make it happen. The most interesting example I have seen of this lately is the super cool SoundCloud player, which let's users add comments on the track timeline.

It's fascinating to see how the capabilities of the Internet are shaping the way music is created, distributed and consumed, and how this have lead to new rules for marketing and identity expression. However, here at NYLVI we're also a bit concerned about what is going on in the physical world and what is happening with the vinyl records we love so much.

So while the cover art is coming back in a brand new form on the Internet, there is also interesting stuff happening in the physical world. For reasons discussed here the technological advances have relieved us from the painful CD format, which has always been an ugly compromise between vinyl and streaming, lacking the flexibility and possibilities of streaming and the aesthetics and charm of vinyl.

What we are left with now are the two best options, which I think are highly compatible. It's therefore great to see how artists and labels have started to realize the potential of the vinyl format again.

Lately we have seen Fractured Recordings release Recovery, which is described by Pitchfork as: "a super-limited edition box set compilation with a simple but intriguing concept: take a bunch of well-known tunes and leave them to the mercy of the international avant-garde and minimalist vanguard."

There are also a bunch of other labels, such as London based AI Records, that are releasing awesome and visually stunning records, and this is something I feel confident that we will see more of in the coming years.

Vinyl will for sure remain a niche format, but it's worth paying attention to it, since it will, due to its unique characteristics, be one of the many building blocks of the new music industry gradually evolving.