DigiPacks are a form of CD packaging typically made of heavy duty card or paper. They're an alternative to the conventional cheap plastic juwel cases. They usually open out in a three fold fashion such as the Oasis DigiPack on the left or like a book like the XX album below that. They conventionally feature a plastic tray attatched to the paper that the CD sits in and is held in place with plastic teeth. They can also be in the form of a paper sleeve which are slightly cheaper to produce.

 

Origianlly produced MeadWestvaco, the Digi-Pak is actually a trademarked name. But as more and more manufacturers adopted the same style of packaging for their CDs  "digipack" became a more generic name for any soft packaging.

 

The benefits of DigiPacks are mainly aesthetic and many bands use them as a prettier alternative to traditional plastic cases which can yellow and crack over time.

 

Digipacks are not quite as structurally sound and the plastic trays have a habit of breaking off as they're usually only held down by glue which can degrade over extended periods of time. The teeth in the trays can also be very flimsy and can break which would result in the CD falling straight out of the bottom of the DigiPack. Jewel cases are usually better at protecting the CD over time depsite the fact they generally don't look quite as nice a DigiPacks.

 

While jewel cases can crack they're usually still usable after this happens. Digipacks rip instead of crack and you'll find that once the paper rips it tends to separate out degrade very quickly which makes them quite delicate in the long run compared to jewel cases.

 

Digipacks can be very environmentally friendly as they're biodegradable and can be made out of recycled paper. However, not many digipacks actually use recycled paper.

 

And finally, Digipacks are expensive when compared to their plastic counterparts which makes them impractical for small bands who want to adopt digipacks purely for aesthetic reasons.