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    Posted: May 21 2022 at 19:53
I began to be intrigued by album cover art as I drove in and around the lake.
Mostly I would buy albums for their art if pigs flew or heads rolled.
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Originally posted by Progishness Progishness wrote:

Originally posted by nick_h_nz nick_h_nz wrote:

But for those of us who lived in a time before the accessibility and availability of the internet, it was a very different world. 
...
So sometimes one might buy something without hearing anything on it prior, or maybe having heard only one song from it elsewhere giving an indication of how the album might sound (which was often found afterwards to be not particularly representative of the whole).


The only time I was drawn to an album purely by the cover was a random spotting on a listening post in the Virgin music store back in the day - gave it a brief listen whilst I was there and purchased it immediately. It's still a favourite album of mine, if a somewhat lesser known (but excellent) work from the New Age genre.


(snip)
...
Hi,

As time went by, I would say that by 1980, we did not have to go by the cover a whole lot. We were already quite well versed in/around music from Europe, and even Japan, and essentially we did not need to wait for the "editorial" cover by Hipgnosis to tell us how good something is/was.

By then, I was already on a different idea ... and about the only folks I followed (religiously!!!) was Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Vangelis, Ange, Banco, PFM, AD2, Can, PH/VdGG and so on, which kinda made "chasing" records and material out there kinda silly ... besides the fact that American music lost its "Fillmore" touch, and became almost exclusively radio minded, now that (by 1980) the corporate rapists had bought out all the FM stations to make sure there were no independents out there "stealing" their sales! 

(PS: It's still hard to believe that folks discussing "progressive" still don't want to hear about that, and how it closed down the "imports" so fast ... which made it look like "progressive" died. It didn't die ... but it was not as easy getting some of the materials, when almost all of them were "imports" again, and we were lucky that we had a couple of super record stores and providers that made sure we could get the stuff.)

But covers, were kinda "done" and the music was not showing itself "better" than before, and all of a sudden we got the cover star bands ... and it was time to let it go for the new music instead!


Edited by moshkito - May 13 2022 at 06:45
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Originally posted by nick_h_nz nick_h_nz wrote:

But for those of us who lived in a time before the accessibility and availability of the internet, it was a very different world. Some record stores did have listening posts, but by no means all. And even those that had listening posts did not always offer a choice of what to listen to. So sometimes one might buy something without hearing anything on it prior, or maybe having heard only one song from it elsewhere giving an indication of how the album might sound (which was often found afterwards to be not particularly representative of the whole).


The only time I was drawn to an album purely by the cover was a random spotting on a listening post in the Virgin music store back in the day - gave it a brief listen whilst I was there and purchased it immediately. It's still a favourite album of mine, if a somewhat lesser known (but excellent) work from the New Age genre.

https://www.discogs.com/master/148739-Caroline-Lavelle-Spirit


Having said that back in the day I was always drawn to anything with a cover by Roger Dean or Hipgnosis (with varying degrees of satisfaction once listening to the enclosed disc).
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Not at all, album covers and what they look like are just a bonus.    Its the actual music thats important.
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Originally posted by Manuel Manuel wrote:

In Central America, it was really hard to get prog music, so whenever my friends and I had a chance to get an album, inside the sleve there was a paper cover for the record (not all the time though). We could find many albums/bands that looked interesting, going by the printing in these covers. Sometimes, we would order albums just because the covers looked nice to us, or somebody would travel to the USA or have a friend/relative who lived there, and we would get the music using this method. Many bands, like Genesis, PFM, Grobschnitt, faust, and others, where known to us this way. 


Do you remember DIDECA LP's, or where those around in your country? They were made here in Guatemala, but they only had the cover and not even those paper covers you speak of! I really hated them. There was only one or two record stores in the whole Guatemala City where you could find some good imports from the US and Europe.
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Originally posted by David_D David_D wrote:

The artwork has always been very important to me, as I've thought of albums as a kind of multimedia - not least LP's. 
Besides that, I've seen throughout the years that if I like the cover, the probability for I'll like the music is much larger.
It's a bit like I can perceive the music looking at the cover, and imo that's not least the purpose of good artwork.

The covers have meant a lot to me, and still do, not only due to the artwork but also as physical objects which can look very well-made and be nice to keep in hands. 
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Originally posted by nick_h_nz nick_h_nz wrote:

^ The graph pretty much proves my point, or, at least, what I meant by secondary. There are really only a couple of years where cassettes were dramatically outselling either vinyl or CD. For many years cassette and vinyl sales are not greatly dissimilar, and as vinyl declines, CD sales take off. The death of the cassette occurs quickly because it is secondary. Cassettes only benefit were their portability, and as soon as CDs gave the portability of cassettes and quality of playback of vinyl, they really had no appeal.

As for blank tapes, they continued to sell loooooong after cassettes themselves had lost their market. We all, I’m sure, had hundreds of blank tapes from the cassette era - of albums copied from friends, and recorded from the radio, etc. But even after people stopped buying cassettes, and started buying CDs, there were still quite a few years where blank tapes were still bought - only now it was to copy not just albums from friends, but our own albums on CDs. Because early portable CD players were stupidly expensive, and prone to skipping; and very few cars had CD players unless one was specially installed - again with early models being very expensive and prone to skipping. It would be some time before anti-jogging technology had advanced, and car CD players were common enough, that the blank tape market would dry up - even while it was almost impossible to buy a new album on cassette!

I guess I misunderstand your term "secondary market", to me that means sold on the used market. You mean it it was a second choice to vinyl in the 70's/80's........?
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Originally posted by Ronstein Ronstein wrote:

...
Again, looking at it from the UK perspective, it's possibly significant that a decent proportion of the bands that came through in the mid to late '60s (and possibly early '70s) either originated in art colleges or from individuals attending art college (or architectural school in the case of Pink Floyd), so art was as important to them as music in their formative years. 

Hi,

Nope.

Space Pirate Radio, Moby Disk, the early Tower, the Westwood Warehouse, Rasputin's ... they had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with "educational" radio whatsoever. In fact, SPR was on a commercial radio station in its early years and the station was number one within 3 months of it starting. And UCSB, as well as such huge amounts of idiocy and rich folks like USC and UCLA wouldn't know progressive from punk music if you asked them! Heck, they still teach Hitchcock as what "movies" are about!

What has become known as "progressive" extended far more than just our imaginations and what we thought was the reason. It might be that in England, the college circuit was very important, but that circuit did not exist in America, where many colleges use their money to bring in over rated classical this or that and then make it look like it is a "cultural event". I can't imagine it being different in England, a place that worships tradition for their poop not stinking and then publishing articles that makes them seem clean and clear, still not realizing that 200 years ago it was all about adding more powders and smells to make sure you did not stink!
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^ The graph pretty much proves my point, or, at least, what I meant by secondary. There are really only a couple of years where cassettes were dramatically outselling either vinyl or CD. For many years cassette and vinyl sales are not greatly dissimilar, and as vinyl declines, CD sales take off. The death of the cassette occurs quickly because it is secondary. Cassettes only benefit were their portability, and as soon as CDs gave the portability of cassettes and quality of playback of vinyl, they really had no appeal.

As for blank tapes, they continued to sell loooooong after cassettes themselves had lost their market. We all, I’m sure, had hundreds of blank tapes from the cassette era - of albums copied from friends, and recorded from the radio, etc. But even after people stopped buying cassettes, and started buying CDs, there were still quite a few years where blank tapes were still bought - only now it was to copy not just albums from friends, but our own albums on CDs. Because early portable CD players were stupidly expensive, and prone to skipping; and very few cars had CD players unless one was specially installed - again with early models being very expensive and prone to skipping. It would be some time before anti-jogging technology had advanced, and car CD players were common enough, that the blank tape market would dry up - even while it was almost impossible to buy a new album on cassette!
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Originally posted by Sean Trane Sean Trane wrote:

Originally posted by nick_h_nz nick_h_nz wrote:

Originally posted by Ronstein Ronstein wrote:

Yup, album cover art was definately the way into a great deal of music. Two particular examples are The Allman Brothers - Eat a Peach and Dr Strangely Strange - Heavy Petting. May not have found either band for a long while without the cover art making me curious.

Bear in mind that those were the days when you could go into the local record shop and get your friendly shop assistant to put sides of albums on for you ad infinitum. 

That depends on the store, I guess. In my experience, if a store did have a listening post, you could ask until you were blue in the face, but unless the shop assistant wanted to hear what you wanted to, it was unlikely to happen. One store I frequented even had a card on the counter telling customers to please not ask for a record to be played.

Also, consider the fact that if you have just asked your friendly shop assistant to play a record, and then someone else asks, what then happens? That, more than anything else, is why there is often a reluctance for a store to play something over the speakers, rather than redirect them to a listening post.

From the age of about 7 to 14, I would say almost 99% of my purchases were based on cover art.

From the age of 14 to 21, it was not as high, but still easily greater than 50% of my purchases would have been based on cover art, I would think.

It has really only been in more recent years, where the internet has made it almost impossible to not be able to listen to something first, that cover art no longer has quite as much influence. It would probably be possible for me to buy 100% of what I buy after listening first. And I have to actively choose not to listen first, if that’s what I want to do..

I’d also like to say that I disagree with Pedro when it comes to cover art being ignored in the age of cassettes and CDs. Cassettes were only ever a secondary market, really. They were the product of convenience, that you could play on the move. Even though many people (like myself) bought only cassettes, we were well aware it was an inferior product in so many ways - but convenience and cost were enough of a pro, to outweigh the cons. And while it might have been far harder to see the detail of the cover art on a cassette, it was rare for the release to not be on lp as well, where it could be seen in all its glory.

Because record stores tended to give prominence to records (duh) over cassettes, so when I saw I bought albums because of the cover art, even though I bought them on cassette, it was the cover art of the lp that attracted me, and had me search through the cassettes to find the album with the cover art I had seen in the record section.

And cover art is absolutely a consideration when it comes to CDs.


Weeeeeell, it depends on which sides of the Pond you were.

In NA, it was hard to get someone in a downtown record shop to play an album (those were systematically sealed). I was lucky enough to have a Records On Wheel in Mississauga and the owner (a guy resembling Roger Earle of Savoy Brown & Foghat) would sometimes play out a record (provided he had time), but he certainly listened to what I told him I liked and suggested albums (he even promised to take them back for a trade if I didn't like it (something I never challenged him on - because he was spot on in 90% of the cases).

In Continental Europe, back the 70/80's , a lot of records were not sealed and some store clerks could be persuaded (provided he was cool and not too busy) to play a few tunes, but he would handle it. Not aware about trying cassettes out, though. Some larger shops had listening booths too.

Of course, the CD changed that: lost independant record shop would have a CD deck (or two) with headphones directly plugged in  and we'd select the empty jewel cases and the owner would take the disc out and let people have an ear at it ar your ease (provided that this wasn't rush hour and too many guys lining up behind you). Much harder to buy something you didn't like then.

==============

As for the %-age of albums bought by sleeves alone (but never the rate you give), it was a factor early on, but with some experience growing (and my buddies' as well) most of my buying was done having listened to the albums at a buddy's house. It was also not just the artwork alone, but also the track lengths (and titles) and the line-up & instruments.

And for cassetttes, it might seem secondary today, but it was significant in the 80's when music became portable (ghetto blasters and walkmans), and yes, unless it was forms of metal music, artworks seemed less important. Don't forget that it wasn't "the CD that killed the vinyl" crap you still hear today from Opus vinyl deists, but more like the "Cassette that killed vinyl and CD that killed the cassette" truth. I knew plenty of people that didn't even care to look at vinyls and went straight to cassettes.
On some continents (namely those on the equator), in the 80's, record shops were having more casettes in stock than vinyls, because vinyls tended to warp due to the heat - even local pressings of local artistes had the problem.

.

Cassette sales in 'Merica were at their peak in the 80's, all due to the portability of players as Sean Trane mentions, including the Sony Walkman. I was always a cassette buyer in the 70s and 80s, but that really took off for me once I got a Walkman around '82 and then started driving. I saved my money and outfitted my car with an Alpine car system and played cassettes all the time. As well I dubbed almost all my records to cassette, I can't tell you how many blank cassettes I bought.


Recorded music sales by format from 1973-2015, and what that might tell us about the limitations of GDP accounting | American Enterprise Institute - AEI
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Back in the 70's, the first period of my worshipping music, a very important way to discover new-to-me albums I liked was 
to borrow records from libraries, and I chose which mostly depending on how much I liked the artwork.
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Originally posted by moshkito moshkito wrote:

Originally posted by Ronstein Ronstein wrote:

...
Im going back to the late '60s when, certainly where I lived in Surrey, England, all the record shops (and record departments in department stores), had a number of listening booths for you to sit in. 

Hi,

Never saw that here on the West Coast, however we were way luckier than most folks in that we had Tower on the Strip, the Warehouse in Westwood, and if you went north, Rasputin's was the place to go ... a totally insane place at the time since the minute you walked in you get a massive headache ... where the fudge do you start? We also had one of the best ever ... Moby Disk in Van Nuys that did nothing but imports and for many years that I am aware of no one could EVER touch them! And I doubt anyone else will including online "imports" folks most of which have the same English and American bands listed!

By 1999/2000, Portland's Tower gave up on imports and unusual things and decided to go to top ten, something that Tower was not exactly about, even in Hollywood, but it might have been that the times had changed. When I left the store here, with one ECM album -- they did not even have a decent Keith Jarrett --- of all people, an American!!! -- I told them they were making a gross mistake and three months later they were closed. A few months later (maybe more) Tower was just about done as well anywhere else and the one in Seattle, around 2005 (I think it was) was the worst and saddest joke for a record store I have ever seen. It didn't even deserve its name!

You knew right away that the time of the albums was over. That the art itself was not important or valuable or meaningful despite many of us wanting to feel otherwise.

I'm OK with things changing, but I really think that the major issue today with most musicians is the lack of appreciation for the arts and their mingling with it ... it's like the only art they know is their DAW and forget the rest, and that's likely not a good connection, although I find that more important in writing and painting (for example) where the area of opportunity is more inside you than outside with more folks/musicians to work with.

Hopefully we can get back some sort of artistic merit to more work ... but seeing yet again, another grundge or metal band that can only show their mugs on the album is really the worst ... and quite possibly the one thing that hurts them more than not ... being exactly the same as all the others ... such a record company idea ... it's unbelievable!



Again, looking at it from the UK perspective, it's possibly significant that a decent proportion of the bands that came through in the mid to late '60s (and possibly early '70s) either originated in art colleges or from individuals attending art college (or architectural school in the case of Pink Floyd), so art was as important to them as music in their formative years. 


Edited by Ronstein - May 05 2022 at 08:41
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Originally posted by Ronstein Ronstein wrote:

...
Im going back to the late '60s when, certainly where I lived in Surrey, England, all the record shops (and record departments in department stores), had a number of listening booths for you to sit in. 

Hi,

Never saw that here on the West Coast, however we were way luckier than most folks in that we had Tower on the Strip, the Warehouse in Westwood, and if you went north, Rasputin's was the place to go ... a totally insane place at the time since the minute you walked in you get a massive headache ... where the fudge do you start? We also had one of the best ever ... Moby Disk in Van Nuys that did nothing but imports and for many years that I am aware of no one could EVER touch them! And I doubt anyone else will including online "imports" folks most of which have the same English and American bands listed!

By 1999/2000, Portland's Tower gave up on imports and unusual things and decided to go to top ten, something that Tower was not exactly about, even in Hollywood, but it might have been that the times had changed. When I left the store here, with one ECM album -- they did not even have a decent Keith Jarrett --- of all people, an American!!! -- I told them they were making a gross mistake and three months later they were closed. A few months later (maybe more) Tower was just about done as well anywhere else and the one in Seattle, around 2005 (I think it was) was the worst and saddest joke for a record store I have ever seen. It didn't even deserve its name!

You knew right away that the time of the albums was over. That the art itself was not important or valuable or meaningful despite many of us wanting to feel otherwise.

I'm OK with things changing, but I really think that the major issue today with most musicians is the lack of appreciation for the arts and their mingling with it ... it's like the only art they know is their DAW and forget the rest, and that's likely not a good connection, although I find that more important in writing and painting (for example) where the area of opportunity is more inside you than outside with more folks/musicians to work with.

Hopefully we can get back some sort of artistic merit to more work ... but seeing yet again, another grundge or metal band that can only show their mugs on the album is really the worst ... and quite possibly the one thing that hurts them more than not ... being exactly the same as all the others ... such a record company idea ... it's unbelievable!




Edited by moshkito - May 05 2022 at 07:31
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I bought several albums due to the Roger Dean covers and his artwork being a kind of shorthand for "enjoyable prog rock will be contained herein". Demons and Wizards by Uriah Heep and Bedside Manners are Extra by Greenslade both turned out to be great albums, but it didn't always work. I didn't much care for Charge! by Paladin, and was a bit disappointed by Badger's One Live Badger. Great cover art though!


Edited by Cactus Choir - May 05 2022 at 03:56
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Originally posted by nick_h_nz nick_h_nz wrote:

Originally posted by Ronstein Ronstein wrote:

Yup, album cover art was definately the way into a great deal of music. Two particular examples are The Allman Brothers - Eat a Peach and Dr Strangely Strange - Heavy Petting. May not have found either band for a long while without the cover art making me curious.

Bear in mind that those were the days when you could go into the local record shop and get your friendly shop assistant to put sides of albums on for you ad infinitum. 

That depends on the store, I guess. In my experience, if a store did have a listening post, you could ask until you were blue in the face, but unless the shop assistant wanted to hear what you wanted to, it was unlikely to happen. One store I frequented even had a card on the counter telling customers to please not ask for a record to be played.


Im going back to the late '60s when, certainly where I lived in Surrey, England, all the record shops (and record departments in department stores), had a number of listening booths fo you to sit in. 
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Originally posted by Progosopher Progosopher wrote:

Experience teaches you how to accurately assess the music from the cover alone.

Can you tell some more about that?

As I see it, the relation between the artwork and the music has somehow changed when comparing the 70's to the modern albums.
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Originally posted by BrufordFreak BrufordFreak wrote:

Off: All Gentle Giant, Magma, and Soft Machine releases from the 1970s. Their album covers just didn't draw me in! 

How 'bout you?

I like the cover of GG's Acquiring the Taste, and find Magma's covers cool and exiting. 
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Originally posted by nick_h_nz nick_h_nz wrote:

Originally posted by Ronstein Ronstein wrote:

Yup, album cover art was definately the way into a great deal of music. Two particular examples are The Allman Brothers - Eat a Peach and Dr Strangely Strange - Heavy Petting. May not have found either band for a long while without the cover art making me curious.

Bear in mind that those were the days when you could go into the local record shop and get your friendly shop assistant to put sides of albums on for you ad infinitum. 

That depends on the store, I guess. In my experience, if a store did have a listening post, you could ask until you were blue in the face, but unless the shop assistant wanted to hear what you wanted to, it was unlikely to happen. One store I frequented even had a card on the counter telling customers to please not ask for a record to be played.

Also, consider the fact that if you have just asked your friendly shop assistant to play a record, and then someone else asks, what then happens? That, more than anything else, is why there is often a reluctance for a store to play something over the speakers, rather than redirect them to a listening post.

From the age of about 7 to 14, I would say almost 99% of my purchases were based on cover art.

From the age of 14 to 21, it was not as high, but still easily greater than 50% of my purchases would have been based on cover art, I would think.

It has really only been in more recent years, where the internet has made it almost impossible to not be able to listen to something first, that cover art no longer has quite as much influence. It would probably be possible for me to buy 100% of what I buy after listening first. And I have to actively choose not to listen first, if that’s what I want to do..

I’d also like to say that I disagree with Pedro when it comes to cover art being ignored in the age of cassettes and CDs. Cassettes were only ever a secondary market, really. They were the product of convenience, that you could play on the move. Even though many people (like myself) bought only cassettes, we were well aware it was an inferior product in so many ways - but convenience and cost were enough of a pro, to outweigh the cons. And while it might have been far harder to see the detail of the cover art on a cassette, it was rare for the release to not be on lp as well, where it could be seen in all its glory.

Because record stores tended to give prominence to records (duh) over cassettes, so when I saw I bought albums because of the cover art, even though I bought them on cassette, it was the cover art of the lp that attracted me, and had me search through the cassettes to find the album with the cover art I had seen in the record section.

And cover art is absolutely a consideration when it comes to CDs.


Weeeeeell, it depends on which sides of the Pond you were.

In NA, it was hard to get someone in a downtown record shop to play an album (those were systematically sealed). I was lucky enough to have a Records On Wheel in Mississauga and the owner (a guy resembling Roger Earle of Savoy Brown & Foghat) would sometimes play out a record (provided he had time), but he certainly listened to what I told him I liked and suggested albums (he even promised to take them back for a trade if I didn't like it (something I never challenged him on - because he was spot on in 90% of the cases).

In Continental Europe, back the 70/80's , a lot of records were not sealed and some store clerks could be persuaded (provided he was cool and not too busy) to play a few tunes, but he would handle it. Not aware about trying cassettes out, though. Some larger shops had listening booths too.

Of course, the CD changed that: lost independant record shop would have a CD deck (or two) with headphones directly plugged in  and we'd select the empty jewel cases and the owner would take the disc out and let people have an ear at it ar your ease (provided that this wasn't rush hour and too many guys lining up behind you). Much harder to buy something you didn't like then.

==============

As for the %-age of albums bought by sleeves alone (but never the rate you give), it was a factor early on, but with some experience growing (and my buddies' as well) most of my buying was done having listened to the albums at a buddy's house. It was also not just the artwork alone, but also the track lengths (and titles) and the line-up & instruments.

And for cassetttes, it might seem secondary today, but it was significant in the 80's when music became portable (ghetto blasters and walkmans), and yes, unless it was forms of metal music, artworks seemed less important. Don't forget that it wasn't "the CD that killed the vinyl" crap you still hear today from Opus vinyl deists, but more like the "Cassette that killed vinyl and CD that killed the cassette" truth. I knew plenty of people that didn't even care to look at vinyls and went straight to cassettes.
On some continents (namely those on the equator), in the 80's, record shops were having more casettes in stock than vinyls, because vinyls tended to warp due to the heat - even local pressings of local artistes had the problem.




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Points: 10069 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Saperlipopette! Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 05 2022 at 01:56
Originally posted by BrufordFreak BrufordFreak wrote:


Off: All Gentle Giant, Magma, and Soft Machine releases from the 1970s. Their album covers just didn't draw me in! 

How 'bout you?

That's funny: Soft Machine - Fourth and Third are among my favorites. And Magma? How can one not be drawn to Kohntarkosz? I find the Magma symbol in itself visually attractive and like all their classic-era covers. 

Some albums I bought mainly because of the covers, while knowing very little about its musical content (all bought very cheap, in an era when this music was totally unhip). Of course the first purchase was more of a gamble than the second:

Univers Zero - Heresie (with the original drawing)
Kraftwerk - The Man Machine and Trans Europe Express
Genesis - Trespass and Foxtrot
The Enid - Aerie Faerie Nonsense (which I didn't like at all)
Tangerine Dream - Phaedra, Stratosfear, Alpha Centauri, Zeit, Rubycon
Klaus Schulze - Moondawn, Timewind, Blackdance...
Jethro Tull - Benefit, Stand Up, Minstrel...

That's all I can remember.

Ugly covers that I think of as a stay away-warning (from the top of my head):

Every single Dream Theater, Pendragon, Arena and Symphony X-album I’ve ever seen.
I think all Tool-albums are ugly too (but I don't mind their music so much)
Beggars Opera - Get Your Dog Off Me
Air Cut - Curved Air (horrible design, but a pretty great album)
King Crimson - In the Wake of Poseidon (the painting reeks of banal amateurism, but I love the album though)

I still buy many albums based on the cover, but mainly jazz and mainly looking at the year of recording and line-up. The ones I go for usually look nice as well. Just looking like it's a 1960's-early 1970's jazz-album is a good look imo.
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Originally posted by Ronstein Ronstein wrote:

Yup, album cover art was definately the way into a great deal of music. Two particular examples are The Allman Brothers - Eat a Peach and Dr Strangely Strange - Heavy Petting. May not have found either band for a long while without the cover art making me curious.

Bear in mind that those were the days when you could go into the local record shop and get your friendly shop assistant to put sides of albums on for you ad infinitum. 

That depends on the store, I guess. In my experience, if a store did have a listening post, you could ask until you were blue in the face, but unless the shop assistant wanted to hear what you wanted to, it was unlikely to happen. One store I frequented even had a card on the counter telling customers to please not ask for a record to be played.

Also, consider the fact that if you have just asked your friendly shop assistant to play a record, and then someone else asks, what then happens? That, more than anything else, is why there is often a reluctance for a store to play something over the speakers, rather than redirect them to a listening post.

From the age of about 7 to 14, I would say almost 99% of my purchases were based on cover art.

From the age of 14 to 21, it was not as high, but still easily greater than 50% of my purchases would have been based on cover art, I would think.

It has really only been in more recent years, where the internet has made it almost impossible to not be able to listen to something first, that cover art no longer has quite as much influence. It would probably be possible for me to buy 100% of what I buy after listening first. And I have to actively choose not to listen first, if that’s what I want to do..

I’d also like to say that I disagree with Pedro when it comes to cover art being ignored in the age of cassettes and CDs. Cassettes were only ever a secondary market, really. They were the product of convenience, that you could play on the move. Even though many people (like myself) bought only cassettes, we were well aware it was an inferior product in so many ways - but convenience and cost were enough of a pro, to outweigh the cons. And while it might have been far harder to see the detail of the cover art on a cassette, it was rare for the release to not be on lp as well, where it could be seen in all its glory.

Because record stores tended to give prominence to records (duh) over cassettes, so when I saw I bought albums because of the cover art, even though I bought them on cassette, it was the cover art of the lp that attracted me, and had me search through the cassettes to find the album with the cover art I had seen in the record section.

And cover art is absolutely a consideration when it comes to CDs.
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