blue note archive

Physical album artwork is an unfortunate casualty of the digital age. In fact all physical media will become endangered species as internet based apps take over. Soon we'll be remembering fondly on the days when we drove out to a store and bought Microsoft Word on a disc. But thats an entirely different issue for another day.

As far as music, I grew up on CDs - but I can now understand how vinyl heads lamented the downsizing of their beloved album jacket artwork in the 80s. I spent a good deal of my youthful idle time trolling record shops and thumbing through racks of CDs. Now that activity seems like a pastime of yesteryear. I haven't bought music (shoutout to the bootleggers) or been to a record store in 5 years and I'm amazed if I still see one in existence. Funny because I used to design them for bands and musicians. But there's still something about having album artwork in your hand and flipping through a CD booklet to read lyrics and peep photos. Especially if the design is beautiful. Here is a Japanese site that archives the classic Blue Note designs. Its not in your hand but its a great tribute to that era of album design.