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An album cover is a cover used to package commercial audio recordings such as the printed cardboard covers that were typically used to package 12" gramophone records from the 1950s through to the 1980s when the 12" record was the major format for distribution of popular music.

The cover serves three main purposes:

• To protect the record, whose grooved surface was delicate.
• To advertise the contents, as the record had little room on its own record label.
• To convey the artistic aspirations of the original artists (see Cover art and Alex Steinweiss).

Upper left: inner sleeve with lyrics; upper right: outer cover, note artwork and trademark group name Carpenters; below: inner sleeve used as original was being damaged by LP, note paper outer, smooth plastic inner and visible center label.

The cover became an important part of the culture of music at the time. As a marketing tool and an expression of artistic intent, gatefold covers, (a folded double cover), and inserts, often with lyric sheets, made the album cover a desirable artifact in its own right. Notable examples are The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band which had cut-out inserts, lyrics, a gatefold sleeve though a single album; and Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon which had gatefold, lyrics, no title on the sleeve and poster inserts. The move to the small (less than 1/4 the size of a record) CD format lost that impact, though attempts have been made to create a more desirable packaging for the CD format, for example the re-issue of Sgt. Pepper, which had a cardboard box and booklet, or the use of oversized packaging.

The importance of cover design was such that some artists specialised or gained fame through their work, notably the design team Hipgnosis (through their work on Pink Floyd albums amongst others) and Roger Dean famous for his Yes and Greenslade covers.

A number of companies specialised in the manufacture of album covers. In the UK, for example, Garrod and Lofthouse were the leading company - the G & L mark was seen on the majority of albums at the time.

Left: inner sleeve printed blank, purely for design; right: back cover, note artwork showing band members, track listing below, at the bottom record label (Chrysalis) logo. The cover is within a clear PVC sleeve - note that LP can be removed without removing sleeve.

Album covers are prone to wear and tear. This is due to the construction and materials used. Album covers are almost universally made of cardboard. A variety of treatments could be applied to improve both their appearance and durability; typically they were covered in a clear plastic foil. A small industry arose providing storage for albums and album cover covers, typically clear plastic.

The record surface is readily damaged, so aside from the cover, there is usually an inner protective cover to protect against dust and handling. This is normally shaped to allow it to readily slide within the outer cover. The inner sleeve is either thin white paper, often unprinted, or a paper sleeve supporting a thin plastic bag. These quite often have a circular cut out so that the record label can be read without directly handling the record, though when the inner sleeve is printed with lyrics, which became quite common, then there is usually no hole. Decca Records used a system of colour-coding on these sleeves where a blue colour denoted a stereophonic recording while red denoted a monophonic recording (the mono record players of the time were not always compatible with stereo records). This system was begun in the 1960s to reduce packaging costs.

There are two elements to this: the eye-catching design, and the practicalities of identifying specific records. An album cover normally has a reference number; a branding (the label), the artist's name, often in logo form; the album title, and normally on the rear, a track listing together with a more detailed list of those involved in making the record, band members, guest performers, engineers and producer. On the spine of the record cover, the artist, title, and reference number are usually repeated so that albums can be identified whilst tightly packed on a shelf.

With the increasing popularity of digital music downloading service and the inflating cost of conducting business, many major labels are trimming down the spend on album covers. According to an article about the latest trend in album cover design, "People who download are predominantly of a younger generation," says Vincent Ho, a professor of popular music at the University of Alberta. "They don’t want to spend $20 on a CD, and at that age, how many are interested in art at all?" ^[1]

• Book cover
• List of album covers, copyright but used as fair use in Wikipedia
• History of controversial album art
• Category:Album-cover and Concert-poster artists

1. ^ Picture Worth a Thousand Songs?. Retrieved on August 9, 2007.