The incredibly shrinking record cover - If Leonardo Divinci created the Mona Lisa on a canvass the size of postage stamp I bet it wouldn't be hanging in the Louvre.

You may remember when the music industry warned that CDs would replace vinyl LPs forever, there was an outcry from music fans. It wasn't only the analog versus digital argument, although that was long and loud and persists in some circles, it was the disappearance of album cover art. The example I remember repeated over and over was the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper cover would never have been approved if it had been designed for a CD jewel case.

Of course the nay sayers have been pretty much proven wrong. Graphic designers and artists have risen to the challenge and have created some wonderful CD covers (booklets? jewel case card inserts?) even though their canvass has shrunk. One of my favourite designers is the award winning A Man called Wrycraft. His website is currently under construction.You can see some of his designs here.

As anyone who owns an ipod can attest, the canvass has shrunk yet again.

Whenever I drive my daughter anyplace we listen to her music, and "Can I hold the disc, daddy?" is the cry from the back seat (she's 4). I became the proud owner of a 30 gig ipod last Father's Day and I promptly filled it up with about 5 thousand songs including a dozen or so of her favourites albums (The Wiggles, Wizard of Oz, Sesame Street). I hooked the ipod through the cassette player and ZAP - instant access to the music in the mini van. But when it came time for her to make her usual request - daddy couldn't deliver. The CD cover, which she usually held in her hands and perused for the entire trip, was a digital image on the ipod, the size of a postage stamp. Sure I have most of her music in CD format at home but anybody who downloads has a ton of music with no jewel case and ultimately no artwork to show for it save that tiny digital image.

This all suggests the cover is at the edge of oblivion. That's sad. I am a tactile person. I used to love bringing home records with that new vinyl smell (formerly the music lover's equivalent of that new car smell). I also enjoyed devouring the info on the sleeve (and in the jewel case) - who played bass, who sang back up, who the band thanked - god, mom, dad, the ol' lady - and possibly a cryptic message that one or all the members of the band were dead, or were not dead.

Now all that information is on the website. And you can't flip through a website in quite the same way - and you certainly can't sell if on ebay for a fortune like the Beatles' butcher cover.

Maybe the record cover has already been replaced by the website, and maybe down the road that will be replaced by some kind of digital holographic video thingee that eminates from whatever replaces the replacement for the replacement of the ipod. I just hope that, whatever it is, it's bigger than a postage stamp.

One more note about the record cover. Forget about the incredible shrinking cover. How about the incredibly ugly cover. There a number of sites displaying some of the weirdest bizarre ugliest record covers ever.

They are great for a laugh.