I have thousands of vinyl albums and 45s. In addition to the music they contain, the album art is something that is now long gone in our digital age. The cover art contained on CDs is no comparison to real album art. Remember buying a double LP and opening the cover to find everything from the complete lyrics, to posters, to--in one instance--a big rolling paper? Did your girlfriend get oogle eyed when opening the
Frampton Comes Alive album cover? Do you remember which band member's feet never touched the ground on
Abby Road? There are still people today trying to sell the copy of the Who's Woodstock contract that was included in one of their albums. You may refer to all the additional goodies contained in albums as a gimmick, however, for me, it was always a bonus as I would have more than likely purchased the album without it. 45s had their own charm.
How many of us discovered a track on the B Side that we liked more than headlined A Side?
The digital age has brought us a way to catalog, file, and listen to our music in an easier fashion. However, IMO, the price has been the quality of the recording and quite a large portion of the other great artistic properties that albums contained.