An album cover is the front of the packaging of a commercially released audio recording product, or album. The term can refer to either the printed cardboard covers typically used to package sets of 10 inch and 12 inch 78-rpm records, or the front-facing panel of a modern CD package, or the front-facing panel of an LP vinyl record.1
Album covers originally were plain brown paper wrappers. In 1938, Columbia Records hired Alex Steinweiss as its first art director. He is credited with inventing the concept of album covers and cover art2, replacing the plain covers used before.