Time line of Digipak

What is a digipak?• A Digipak is a patented style of optical disc packaging.

They commonly consist of a book style card stock outer binding. The CD is held in one or more plastic trays capable of holding the CD on the inside.

The term 'Digipak' is often used to describe the full plastic tray, although there is no common name for the 'Digipak Style'. They first came around as an alternative to jewel cases, which was a compact disc case with three pieces.

Jewel cases • Jewel cases where used before

Digipak's where created. The Jewel case was first released in 1982 and is a three piece plastic case which usually contained a compact disc along with the liner notes and a back card.

• The Jewel case is the standard case used by a majority of manufacturers and it is the most common type of case found in record and movie shops.

• Today this type of case is more commonly used for DVDs but not those that contain a major film.

The creation of Digipaks• MeadWestvaco created the first

'Digipak'.nAfter this, the digipak became popular among record labels and artist in the start of the 21st century.• The paks became popular due to that

they did not crack like Jewel cases tended too. Also artists were drawn to the aesthetic Appel they had and also the premium look they had. • The three portion digipak layout of the

sleeve allowed more design options as there was much more space .

What are Digipak's made off?• Digipak's normally flip open like how

a book would and can have up to three parts. One portion will open to the right,while the other opens to the left and the CD will be in the Center portion. (See picture above)• The portion that holds the CD is made

of plastic (like a Jewel Case) and attached to the plastic portion are paper background and the front cover of the digipak

Negative impacts • However there are also many negative impacts of the

Digipak creation.• The plastic portion of the digipak tended to break

more than its Jewel case counterpart. This was due to the lack of protection the digipak had due to it's outer layer being made out of paper. If the plastic portion did break then the CD would very likely fall out of its casing.

2010 and onwards• MWV sold the AGI media packaging unit to Atlas Holdings for $68

million in 2010.• The president of AGI global media business said 'We are very

excited about this transaction and the future ture of the media and entertainment business '• Earlier in the year AGI produced the packaging for the DVD of

Avatar.• In 2012 AGI purchased shorewood packaging and merged it with

AGI to create AGI-shorewood. They now currently hold the right to the Digipak.