Album covers can sometimes interest me in the music itself but generally it doesn't matter.

I like album covers. They sum up the theme of the album in a visual art sense, but you gotta listen to the album first obviously to see how it works together.

doesnt matter. I can care less:)

Album art, design and packaging can enhance an album or give the record a visual element. It's a great thing when it is done well and works but a lot of the time it doesn't make much of a difference.

I love great album covers. For the longest time, they were the starting point of any interest in a musician/band.

Usually they reflect both the mood (or the attempt at the mood) and the care that was put into the creation of the album.

Sometimes, the covers from the 50's and 60's would be hit and miss (usually made by the Marketing people), and when it got to the "Supermarket Albums" there would be those who used some classic tease-a-rama style marketing to cover up the fact that it was a throwaway that would still be worth it for the cover alone, but once it got to the 70's and the artists controlling more of their presentation, it mattered more.

They don't matter too much, but if I'm checking out a band I don't know much about, it makes it easier to approach. So maybe they do matter.

I surprised at the amount of people who hold no particular opinion about album covers.

As far as I'm concerned if your album cover doesn't look eye catching or doesn't really have an interesting concept behind it then I really don't hold out much hope that the music on the album is any better.

An album cover is a statement about the art on the record you're putting out, so yes I will judge a book by it's cover.

I want to say that I don't care about the album art... but honestly, I do. I am far less likely to check out an album if the artwork on the cover is crappy. That said, I think that few album covers are truly awful. And I enjoy some album covers for their quirkiness or sense of humor, so there's that. But I think I've ever only listened to one album that I really loved, but hated the cover. Danny Brown's The Hybrid.

http://www.ihiphop.com/content/wp-co...the-hybrid.jpg

Seriously, look at that piece of ****. It sucks. So much. I hate it so much I am almost ashamed to enjoy the music inside of it. Petty? Probably, but hey, it is how it is.

Then again, a cover is by no means an indicator that I will enjoy the music. I have heard plenty of albums with wonderful cover art that I couldn't stand in any way.

One of the things I miss most of the vinyl age are the covers .... Big, often readable, an explosion of colors and the unbeatable pleasure of holdin hard paper ...... Great old times :)

My love of album covers was one of the main things that made me want to become a designer. So, yes, they matter a lot to me. Of course there are always exceptions, but by and large if the cover looks like the artist has a shitty aesthetic sensibility then there's a pretty good chance that the music shares that awful sensibility.