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| Artist Logos |
The artists logo is one of the most important informational aspects of a magazine ad. It usually comes near the top third of the advert and will either take up most of the width of the page, or take up roughly half of the page and be placed at the left side.
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| Album Names |
The album name is an important piece of information for buyers to know. This is usually shown just below the artist logo in a smaller font. I was surprised to see that some adverts, such as one from The Offspring and one from Machine Head, completely omitted this information and even on adverts that did have the album name printed, it wasn't as prominent as I would have suspected. I presume this is for a few reasons. Firstly, due to technology, just by searching for the artists name on Amazon, iTunes or other similar stores, or by visiting the artists website, the album name would be very easy to find. Secondly, the album will often be recognised by the artwork (which I will mention in the next sub-category) so mentioning the name isn't completely necessary. Finally, today artists make most of their money by tours and so it is the artist that is predominantly being promoted and not the album.
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| Linked Artwork |
The artwork of a magazine advert will very often be an expanded version of the digipak artwork, or will at least have an element in both that is the same. This makes the album/digipak easily recognisable to people who have seen the advert.
Digipak Cover
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| Digipak Covers on Magazine Ads |
If the artwork of the magazine ad and digipak cover aren't connected, it is likely that the digipak will be shown in the ad. This will either be just the cover or, less frequently, a full product shot with the digipak opened and the disks shown.
Reviews
Reviews may be shown for the album, although this isn't too common. These reviews will usually come from magazines, newspapers or other media forms in which the primary audience is similar to that of the audience for the artist being promoted.
Website Address
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| Website Addresses |
A web address for the band is usually located towards the bottom of an advert and will be small and discrete but still easy to read. While this used to include the full address, including 'www.' at the start, nowadays it is more likely to just seen the domain and not have 'www.' included.
Release Date
A release date is quite important information and is given on approximately half of the magazine ads that I have looked at. It will either give the date or say 'Out Now'. I presume that those that don't give the date have already been released, but I'm not completely sure of this.
Tour Information
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| Tour Information |
This is only occasionally included on an advert for a digipak. Obviously an artist has to have an upcoming tour for the information to be given, but even those that do rarely include it. Generally, as already mentioned, acts make most of their money through tours rather than album/single sales, which is a trend that has only come abouts in recent years due to the shift in buying habbits and the introduction and increase in illegal file sharing. Perhaps in the future including tour information will be more common to accommodate for this change in the industry.
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| Record Label Logos |
Record Label Logo
The record label's logo will be shown on almost all magazine ads. It will usually only take a very small space and be located at the bottom of the page, either directly in the centre or in one of the corners.
Product Information
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| Product Information |
This is most likely to be found on adverts for albums that aren't just standard CDs. There will usually be a special promotional aspect to them: '20th Anniversary Edition' or 'Includes Live Tour DVD' etc. are commonly mentioned. Occasionally though some songs from the album might be listed. This will usually be a song previously released as a single or a couple of the 'best' songs from the album.
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