CD art

Here is something I want to bring up, because in addition to being a publicist, I am a journalist and PR guy for a large online men's magazine, Bullz-Eye.com. So I have a giant crate of CDs that were sent to us by labels, publicists and from bands themselves. And I'm sorry to admit that we review probably 20% of what is sent in, if that. So as the bin gets more and more full, I have to e-mail our music editor and let him know what "orphans" we have on hand. I do this manually, typing in each CD title into an e-mail to our editor. And last week, I was reminded of a few things that drive me nuts with regard to CD art work....take this advice as you will, but I am sure other journalists agree with me.....

1. If your CD cover is dark, make sure the print you use is bright white. I went though a ton of CDs that had like dark blue type on black background. Seriously?

2. Put the artist name in bigger type than the album title, unless you are, say, Aerosmith.

3. Make the name and album title LEGIBLE, not in some weird script we can't read

4. Consider a light background. The darker it is, the less easy it is to read the type when you have a stack of CDs on your desk. I would say the ratio of dark art to light in the bin is 60/40.

5. Jewel cases are much better for being able to find a CD in a bin or even when stacked up on your desk. Those thin cases are kind of a big reason you may not get coverage.

I'm not being bitter, I'm just trying to help, so hopefully this info does help you!