Per-song digital artwork is definitely the way to go
Per-song digital artwork is definitely the way to go. Something smaller and less elaborate but that has relevance to the song and memorability. Each individual piece of artwork should have a consistent style for each album. It could be like an ‘art gallery’ for the album done by a single artist.
I could easily imagine an old “Smiths” album containing a monochromatic image of a 60s british movie star for each song, or a RATM album with a series of riot / revolution images etc.
No need to look at this as the loss of an art form, we should try to embrace it as the birth of another.