iTunes digital booklet

[deral]

aloha! i bought U2's album, and I was utterly shocked and giddy when it said that there is a free digital booklet. I figured that...well, the capacity of my brain didn't help me in imaginating what a free digital booklet was, so when I bought it, and saw that it downloads into your music library as a PDF, I was stoked.

As I'm nearing my 1,000th purchased song, I would never think of buying an actual CD. Having an actual copy of the CD insert [which would be the advantage of buying an actual CD] was never a big lost for me. I was already happy that the songs that I bought came with a cool cover album.

It made me wonder if other artists/labels would follow in PDFing a digital booklet. I understand making a digital format might take more work for the producing company, and might end up taking space on our HDs, but would digital booklets be beneficial for albums on iTunes.

Imagine, if that were offered, say as an incentive in buying the whole album (vs. single purchases) would more people buy albums on iTunes than just songs? For me, instead of previewing the songs of the album [How to dismantle an atomic bomb], I was so excited to see what the free booklet was, I bought the entire thing

Even when I opened my booklet, I gave it just a quick glance before returning to my music to jiggle my booty. Are digital booklets the new great feature of digital music?

[cb911]

wow, nice touch to an album.

is that digital booklet just like the booklets that come in the front cover of a CD album?

sounds like a good idea... is there any reason now for people to keep buying CD's?

[deral]

Originally Posted by cb911

is that digital booklet just like the booklets that come in the front cover of a CD album?

Yeah man, it seems to be the same kine book as in normal Cds--pictures, lyrics, and the must have of all CD inserts: dedications

[Applespider]

Originally Posted by deral

Yeah man, it seems to be the same kine book as in normal Cds--pictures, lyrics, and the must have of all CD inserts: dedications

Yeah that would be good to have. I guess that embedding it in each song (a la the cover art) might make the files too big. I don't need the album book on my iPod for instance. But being able to download them (even if it's a pdf mailed to your iTunes account address) when you've bought an album would be pretty cool. I confess that I tend to read them once and then ignore but still...

[dejo]

I'm still a little confused how these included digital booklets work. Can someone provide more details, please? It's only included when downloading the entire album (I assume)? Where is the PDF placed, exactly? Is there any notification on download that a digital booklet has been included? And, I'm curious, can they DRM a PDF? If so, are they?

[hughdogg]

Originally Posted by dejo

I'm still a little confused how these included digital booklets work. Can someone provide more details, please? It's only included when downloading the entire album (I assume)? Where is the PDF placed, exactly? Is there any notification on download that a digital booklet has been included? And, I'm curious, can they DRM a PDF? If so, are they?

The booklet is included with the album purchase, and it is listed in among the tracks in iTunes. Double clicking on the file in iTunes opens the PDF in Preview (or whatever your prefered PDF viewer is). The PDF is not transfered to my 3G iPod. I wonder if it is to a iPod photo? No notification, I bought the album, and after it downloaded, went to listen in iTunes and noticed the PDF file, and I said, "Holy sh_t, that's cool!"

I'd like to see Apple implement them better for a little easier printing (as in, not wasting a whole sheet of paper per page), and while there at it, partner up with HP on a punch-out booklet template to print on HP paper, so we can print these out and insert them into our CD-R covers with having to potential injure ourselves with scissors.

Cheers,
hughdogg