If you haven't read or seen anything about the album cover the English band Hard-Fi created for their most recent album, you might be interested simply for the novelty of the approach. Once Upon a Time in the West was released last week (next week in the U.S.) with the band's name, the album title and the words "No Cover Art." larger than both as the cover image (or non-image).

The band has stated that they wished to "break the rules" of an increasingly digital market where album covers did not matter by simply not having any artwork. The accompanying artwork for the first single from the album tells the listener that an "expensive black and white photo of band" is not available in a more overt statement about the decline in importance for artwork to accompany an album. The band also told NME that "it gets harder to do something really interesting because of the size of CDs" and that they have been told that this move makes the album "the white album" for this generation. (8/18/2007, p.21) Of course, when the "white album" was released in 1968 it hardly mattered that the sleeve was white as much as it mattered that The Beatles were putting out a new album.

On the whole, the scheme seems like a fairly interesting marketing campaign. Reports indicate that Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG) label executives were against the move, which has sparked harsh criticism from fans on the band's message boards. Despite these backlash, the lack of artwork and surrounding media coverage brought this potential listener to their website and clips of their songs which seems a successful ploy to bring in new listeners. It may only be a novelty bid in a saturated market but "no cover art" may just succeed and allow the band to reinsert the importance of music in selling music in the record industry.

As I continuously ruminate about the state of music, album sales, and the growth of online digital markets, how much consumers care about these topics is something I have not strayed too close to. I think it is safe to say that consumers do care, but I cannot say if it is to the degree with which I am fascinated and write about it.

I was reminded by a mentor and colleague a few days ago how easy the use of Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iTunes Store and iPod are if you are hoping to listen to only one song or a few songs, but not an album. Of course, that very dynamic is what I so often write about in my blogs about the death of the album, but who exactly is decrying the death of the album? No matter how much I write about that death, it is very apparent that those who are worried about the death of such a money maker are the labels and the industry.

The nice thing about iTunes and other digital stores is that if you are just browsing you can listen to clips of the songs. This is not a method of shopping that you can easily acquire at stores like Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) or Target (NYSE: TGT), although Best Buy is beginning to incorporate computer stations where you can make test runs of programs like Rhapsody and Napster. They hope you will then sign up for a subscription to that service through Best Buy. Browsing at stores like these only ever really entails looking at the product. If you know nothing about it, then you cannot know if it will be something you are happy to spend your money on.