But, now that discs are giving way to digital downloads, what is the future for album art?
From Andy Warhol’s banana on the front of the first Velvet Underground record to the underwater baby pursuing a dollar bill on the cover of Nirvana’s Nevermind, these were pictures that teased and intrigued. They offered a tantalising glimpse into worlds that seemed glamorous, exciting and strange. But the once vast canvas is shrinking – whereas on glossy LP covers these images enjoyed a full 12 inches of sleeve space, this reduced to five inches with the advent of the CD. And now, with the shift from discs to downloads, the space allotted to album art is even smaller. On many MP3 players the sleeve appears not much bigger than a postage stamp – so can the album cover survive? Album cover reform It was in 1939 that young designer Alexander Steinweiss persuaded Columbia Records that the use of original artwork might attract more buyers. Previously records came in drab brown cardboard covers with little to mark them out except the name of the artist and the album. The change was a big hi
