Peter Hay

Simple fact, if you want to get radio play, you have to make a CD, and
package it with state-of-the-art design in a jewel-box style case.

Radio stations of all types (college, alternative, triple-a,
folk/blues/Americana) get the vast majority of their new music on CDs. 
Any endeavor to promote your music will entail using the all time best
promotional item ever created: a record (I still call CDs and vinyl
discs ”records” and why not?).

That’s right: even in this age of downloading, the old fashioned disc
is still going to carry your music to more people than any other vehicle
(partially because radio will carry your music to more people than any
other media, but more on that some other time).

This is why you should go out of your way to make a good cover.  It
creates an aura, develops your asthetic direction, and the best ones
compel people to listen to the music.  If you are attempting to be
noticed in a field of fifty other CDs that came to the station in any
given week, you want special impact.

Do not under any circumstances make a CD with a flat cardboard cover. 
They get lost and misfiled. And professional radio personal view them as
advance samplers (which would not be for airplay) or, worse,
amateurish.

A regular jewel-box size case with a spine that has highly legible print
is necessary because many music directors and DJs search for the CD by
looking at the spines.

A new, unknown artist will benefit greatly by prominently displaying
their name on the front cover.   Make it clear at a glance who the
artist is who created the enclosed music.

Finally, the idea of making a nice looking CD, in a durable, attractive
case is really the ultimate respect you can have for anyone who has
become a fan of your music who still likes to collect CDs.  

So, do it!