Spare a thought for the album cover artist.  Years ago, in the glory days of the gatefold double album, they could make bold, striking statements. Think of the prism on the front of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side Of The Moon", the airbrushed spaceships on ELO albums, The Beatles staring out from the gatefold of Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in all their stoned technicolour glory,  the list goes on and on. Albums covers that you could hang on your wall.

Then came the advent of the CD. A far smaller canvas, but still a high quality print medium not without possibilities. CD artwork could encompass the front and back cover of the CD case, the surface of the CD itself, an accompanying booklet, a presentation box to put the whole thing in and more.

Now however, the album artist's canvas has shrunken to a few backlit millimeters on the screen of an iPod. For the digital album cover artist this presents a new challenge. The skills of the miniaturist will have to be rediscovered. Bold designs that have an impact on a tiny scale will need to be developed. Artwork will need to be designed for individual tracks, a whole album, an artist and maybe even personalised for the end user. Maybe a whole new art form has been born from the ashes of the gatefold album cover.