History Main / PackagedAsOtherMedium

** The essays and reading material for ''Film/AceInTheHole'', a film about news reporting, are designed to look like a newspaper.

** Music/TheSmallFaces' ''Music/OgdensNutGoneFlake'' was originally packaged in a circular metal container like a very large tobacco tin. This proved AwesomeButImpractical as the tins tend to roll off shelves, and the packaging was was changed to a circular cardboard gatefold sleeve. A limited number of the CD version was sold in metal tins.

''Film/GhostWorld'''s disc art is made to look like the label on an old jazz vinyl record like the ones Creator/SteveBuscemi's character collects (notably with the "genre" written as "Angst, Teen").

[[quoteright:337:[[WesternAnimation/{{Sealab2021}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/packaged_as_other_medium_6250.jpg]]]]

** ''Music/SomeGirls'' by Music/TheRollingStones

** The clean version of the cover of ''Music/BeggarsBanquet'' by Music/TheRollingStones makes the album appear as a classy record, which it isn't.

** The original LP cover of ''Music/StickyFingers'' by Music/TheRollingStones looks like a pair of pants, complete with a real zipper. Their cover for ''Music/EmotionalRescue'' looks like a series of X-Ray images.

* The packaging for ''Film/{{Borat}}'' made it look like a cheap, foreign bootleg rather than a polished official DVD release. The disc itself looks like a blank disc that was recorded over, with the movie's title written on it in marker and the logotype & slogan parodying those of Memorex (i.e. "is live? No. Demorez," in place of "is it live or is it Memorex?"). [[http://vimeo.com/79225413 The DVD menus also look like they have been whipped up in five minutes with no budget.]] It serves to highlight the film's {{Mockumentary}} status. This infamously resulted in a swath of confusion among consumers who weren't in on the joke, leading to retailers receiving a number of complains from buyers who thought they had purchased an actual bootleg.

* Meta-example: In the LiveActionCutscene opening video of ''VideoGame/BrutalLegend'', Creator/JackBlack presents the game to the players as if it was on an old-school LP rather than DVD.

** Music/ElvisCostello and Music/TheRoots' collaborative album ''Wise Up Ghost'' has cover art modeled after the cover of ''[[Literature/{{Howl}} Howl & Other Poems]]'' by Creator/AllenGinsberg, the fourth book in the City Lights Pocket Poets Series. And the Special Edition of ''Wise Up Ghost'' actually is a small paperback book, with the CD tucked into the back cover.

* ''AudioPlay/TheMontyPythonMatchingTieAndHandkerchief'': The initial pressings of this Creator/MontyPython album were packaged with a real tie and handkerchief, implying the record was merely a free extra.

* The DVD releases for ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' [[ReCut Extended Editions]] were designed to look like aged books. This was taken UpToEleven for the [[LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition Middle-Earth Limited Collector's Edition]] that included ''Film/TheHobbit'' trilogy, which had the discs of each film in literal books that were grouped in a wooden bookshelf.

** ''Cunning Stunts'' by NoiseRock group Cows is designed to look like an old jazz record, specifically one released by Blue Note Records: It features a blue-tinted [[FaceOnTheCover photo of the artist]], all-caps text, and a list of individual band members on the cover, all of which are frequent elements of that label's distinctive design style - the font choices and placement of the text specifically seems to be a nod to Eric Dolphy's ''Out To Lunch!''. The fact that Shannon Selberg is depicted playing a trumpet adds to the jazz record concept, but actually is accurate to the album's contents: Selberg is primarily a vocalist, but also plays discordant trumpet on some songs.

** Diablo Swing Orchestra's ''Pandora's Pinata'' was sold in a CD digipak which was meant to look like a record album. Every panel of the package had fake ring wear, and the inner panels resembled paper sleeves with fake record labels visible through center holes.

* Future Bible Heroes' ''Memories of Love'' looks like a children's activity book - this is down to the liner notes, which make the listener have to solve simple word puzzles to find out song lyrics, credits and even the album title and artist name.

** Similar to ''Ace in the Hole'' above, ''Film/TrueStories'''s reading material is printed on cheap pulp newspaper resembling the tabloids that served as inspiration for the film's setting, with a few of the actual tabloid stories from Creator/DavidByrne's collection mixed in.

* Meta-example: In the opening video of ''VideoGame/BrutalLegend'', shot in RealLife, Creator/JackBlack presents the game to the players as if it was on an old-school LP rather than DVD.

* Album covers that look like advertisement pages:

* Album covers that look like art objects, paintings that mimic a particular famous style, galleries, etc.:

* Album covers that look like they came from a comic book:

* Album covers that look like postcards:

* Album covers made to look as if they were a different musical genre or different musical artist:

* Album covers that look like newspaper articles

* Album covers that look like 7" singles or, in the case of a CD, look like an LP:

* Album covers looking like common day objects:

** Plastikman's ''Sheet One'' had a perforated cover made to resemble a sheet of LSD tabs. This actually ended up getting a fan arrested - He was pulled over for speeding and the officer mistook the CD case in his car for the real thing.

** {{Music/Primus}}' GreatestHitsAlbum ''They Can't All Be Zingers'' is designed to look like a package of processed cheese slices. This extends to the track-listing and credits on the back, which are formatted to look like the "nutrition facts" on the back of food packaging, and the CD case comes wrapped in cellophane like a cheese package would be.

** Music/BillyJoel's ''The Nylon Curtain'' is supposed to look like the dust jacket of a circa 1982 "important" LitFic novel.

* The poster for ''WesternAnimation/WaveTwisters'' is based on UsefulNotes/Atari2600 game packaging, specifically ''Pitfall'''s.

* The English release of ''VisualNovel/ComicParty'' did this to look like manga, complete with the "You're reading the wrong way!" warnings.

* Like ''Borat'', ''Film/TheGirlWithTheDragonTattoo'' also styled its DVD release after a bootleg, but with official Sony iconography; this also led to confusion and complaints among buyers who mistakenly felt as if they were duped into buying a phony copy of the movie.

** The disc case for the DVD and Blu-Ray of ''Film/{{Videodrome}}'' is designed to look like (and be the exact same size as) a Betamax tape, as a MythologyGag.

** Fittingly for a movie focusing on Music/TheBeatles, ''Film/IWannaHoldYourHand'''s disc is designed to look like a Creator/CapitolRecords 7" record from the 1960s[[note]]ArtisticLicenseHistory is involved here, as the song the film is named after was never released as a single in the United States until 1989, and as a mini CD to boot; the original 7" release was on Creator/ParlophoneRecords, which used a markedly different label design[[/note]].
** The essays and reading material for ''Film/DrStrangelove'' are packaged in a miniature envelope designed to look like the top secret documents seen in the film.

A physical release or copy of something is designed to look like it's from another medium; for instance, a DVD case that looks like a comic book cover (pictured). Comic book covers and movie posters are especially popular subjects for this trope.