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Apple and Record Labels to Bundle Interactive Booklets with Music Downloads
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i can just see them charging like $25 for it. I hope it would be free, but honestly i think they will charge 24.99 for an album with enhanced artwork.
Who really sees my album cover art? Me, and that's about it. I've never bought an entire album via iTunes and I probably never will. Marketing a full album will never return to the industry; b/c the fact is these artist sometimes put a horrific sounding song(s) on their albums under the premise that it's gonna sell better if they have twelve songs on the album v. only ten. The public won't get fooled again....
I have plenty of albums where I like every single song on them, and I like how all the songs together form a whole. Sure many pop albums work the way you described, but you are way over generalizing.
I'm quite aware of alternative channels for seeking quality music, and I have quite a large library containing contemporary bands; mind you I listen to Sigur Rós, not Britney Spears.
But the truth is I feel that modern music reached a standstill. It has not developed dramatically, and everything just feels the same. Many bands and albums have good material, but it just seems to repeat itself someway or the other. I cannot recall a single album from recent years that has been groundbreaking as Sgt. Pepper, Ziggy Stardust or Dark Side of the Moon, to name a few.
In recent years I've actually found a new haven in classical music - that is where you REALLY hear truly profound work.
cheers
I mostly buy whole albums. I am not into signals and the like. I would gladly take any kind of alternative to booklets that are digital.
Who really sees my album cover art? Me, and that's about it. I've never bought an entire album via iTunes and I probably never will. Marketing a full album will never return to the industry; b/c the fact is these artist sometimes put a horrific sounding song(s) on their albums under the premise that it's gonna sell better if they have twelve songs on the album v. only ten. The public won't get fooled again....
Some might say they've never bought a quality meal at a high class restaurant because McDonalds is all they need.
That's fine. Fast food and fast music probably go hand-in-hand for some mentalities.
But don't go around telling people with a more selective palette than yourself that all THEY need is the musical equivalent of a Big Mac and fries.
What I really would like bundled in....
would be an artist lesson for Garageband! I know they are big files that take a long time for Apple to create and a long time for most people to download, but I would definitely be enticed into buying my albums on iTunes instead of my local CD shop if Apple offered an artist lesson of one of the songs.
would be an artist lesson for Garageband! I know they are big files that take a long time for Apple to create and a long time for most people to download, but I would definitely be enticed into buying my albums on iTunes instead of my local CD shop if Apple offered an artist lesson of one of the songs.
unlikely. however, labels will deduct additional "packaging" costs from artists' royalties if they continue the existing business model.
Back then, being groundbreaking was, in itself, groundbreaking. Nowadays, we are used to the idea of artists having their own unique sound (even if not enough do), so no pop music will ever have quite the same impact as the examples from that era, even if it is just as creative in its own way. We are simply too used to hearing "new sounds".
But on the positive side, there is as much creativity and originality out there as ever, even if it is a bit of a needle in a haystack. Sites like thesixtyone are great for finding good stuff you may not have heard.
while I agree with your opinion on what good music should be I think you miss the point.
the music labels will not use this enhanced booklets to enrich the experience for listeners of classic, serious and high quality music.
the labels will use this feature to bundle mainstream single tracks into albums and entice listeners to buy entire albums for a lot more money. In addition they will delay the sale of the individual tracks and by that will remove another freedom of choice for listeners (and artists).
and of course they will use this feature to reduce the roalties the artists get out of the sale because the "enhanced feature" is property of the label and they will charge the artists for that service.
in the end most ipod listeners will listen to individual tracks anyway. or why do you think "shuffle" is so popular?
I think this will be a good idea and could yield some cool stuff, but I think the labels and anyone that argues iTunes is responsible for the "single" syndrome is dilusional.
That all started before iTunes was even around... You wanna know WHY record labels??? Because most ALBUMS SUCK NOW! They usually only have 1, 2, maybe 3 (if you are lucky) good songs. Album sales have been hurting for along time and CDs have been overpriced for a long time. When iTunes came along it simply gave people a way to not get ripped off for crap they already didn't want.
Yes bundle apps, do cool stuff, but you really wanna sell whole albums? Then have the artists write MORE GOOD SONGS and singles on an album lol. And do NOT raise the price. This is not rocket science!
That all started before iTunes was even around... You wanna know WHY record labels??? Because most ALBUMS SUCK NOW! They usually only have 1, 2, maybe 3 (if you are lucky) good songs. Album sales have been hurting for along time and CDs have been overpriced for a long time. When iTunes came along it simply gave people a way to not get ripped off for crap they already didn't want.
Yes bundle apps, do cool stuff, but you really wanna sell whole albums? Then have the artists write MORE GOOD SONGS and singles on an album lol. And do NOT raise the price. This is not rocket science!
Lyrics should come with album cover art
I think something that should be standard -- and included for free -- with each and every iTunes song purchase are lyrics.
When I was a substitute teacher 6 years ago, I noticed that many Middle School students looked up lyrics to their favorite songs during their free time on computers.
Lyrics usually come with packaged CD's, and while websites make lyrics available, there are no "good" reasons why iTunes should not have them -- and once more -- for FREE with each purchase.
Better yet: free lyrics for ALL songs, similar to album art, regardless of ripping from a CD or purchasing from iTunes.
Hopefully Apple is listening.
I think something that should be standard -- and included for free -- with each and every iTunes song purchase are lyrics.
When I was a substitute teacher 6 years ago, I noticed that many Middle School students looked up lyrics to their favorite songs during their free time on computers.
Lyrics usually come with packaged CD's, and while websites make lyrics available, there are no "good" reasons why iTunes should not have them -- and once more -- for FREE with each purchase.
Better yet: free lyrics for ALL songs, similar to album art, regardless of ripping from a CD or purchasing from iTunes.
Hopefully Apple is listening.
Believe it or not, merely printing those lyrics costs money. That money goes to the songwriters and publishers of said songs. I doubt Apple wants to pay more than they already are, as margins for music retailers are historically (and ridiculously) low. Check the history on music stores (brick and mortar) and you'll see music has always carried low margins for retailers. They barely survived back then, and as we know now, they no longer exist. The music business is a fragile business. The only ones making any real money are the heads of these companies.
That all started before iTunes was even around... You wanna know WHY record labels??? Because most ALBUMS SUCK NOW! They usually only have 1, 2, maybe 3 (if you are lucky) good songs. Album sales have been hurting for along time and CDs have been overpriced for a long time. When iTunes came along it simply gave people a way to not get ripped off for crap they already didn't want...This is not rocket science!
Most albums suck now? Perhaps you should reconfigure your taste in music. If the kind of albums you listen to are 90% "crap", it's time you looked for a source of music that was more consistently rewarding for you.
Maybe jazz would only be 60% crap to you. Or classical, only 50% crap. Have you tried opera? I've never found more than 40% crap in those CDs.
I listened to an early music CD recently that, believe me, was only 11% crap. It's not rocket science. Try expanding your horizons instead of listening to music that is mostly crap.
Try expanding your horizons and consider that perhaps you are wrong before passing judgement. I am a musician, I sing, play guitar, bass, piano, and drums, and I listen to and enjoy virtually all genres of music except twangy country. My iPhone has a VERY eclectic array of music. My point is merely that a lot of albums pushed to the masses by labels now only have a couple or few good singles. Maybe because they are overproduced and lack talent. Whatever the cause, I find it to be true.
Think of this pitch this way:
Steve Jobs: "Book and Music industry. You are getting commoditized because you have no differentiated platform for extending/re-inventing your product for the online age. We just so happen to have a set of tools that have proven compelling to the tune of 1.5B downloads, field-tested across 65K apps and with a current footprint of 46M devices."
Music/Book Industry: "There is no way we can re-create that value proposition, and we already see the writing on the wall with Amazon. If they are successful, they will be telling us how much money we can make or worse, go direct to writers and musicians, and design us out of the equation. How do we get started?"
This is the consummate 1+1=3 for a segment that is otherwise facing a 1+1=<2 future.
For more fodder on this one, check out:
Old Media, New Media and Where the Rubber Meets the Road
http://bit.ly/zwTw8
Cheers,
Mark
Steve Jobs: "Book and Music industry. You are getting commoditized because you have no differentiated platform for extending/re-inventing your product for the online age. We just so happen to have a set of tools that have proven compelling to the tune of 1.5B downloads, field-tested across 65K apps and with a current footprint of 46M devices."
Music/Book Industry: "There is no way we can re-create that value proposition, and we already see the writing on the wall with Amazon. If they are successful, they will be telling us how much money we can make or worse, go direct to writers and musicians, and design us out of the equation. How do we get started?"
This is the consummate 1+1=3 for a segment that is otherwise facing a 1+1=<2 future.
For more fodder on this one, check out:
Old Media, New Media and Where the Rubber Meets the Road
http://bit.ly/zwTw8
Cheers,
Mark
Geez, people act like there's no such things as albums or CDs any more. I go down to my local record store and buy new CDs and new vinyl from new artists every weekend.
Wow, I am very skeptical of this move. Firstly I can't imagine big media doing this for every artist. I tend to keep away from most mainstream artists and I can't help but assume many smaller artists aren't going to get this treatment. Not to mention all of the music I like that isn't on a major label.
Also, what good is the album liner notes when this information is freely available across the net? What extra things can they possibly tack on to encourage those that don't buy full albums to now start doing so? I could definitely see adding music videos free with full album downloads though. Music videos have almost always been commercials to convince you to buy a specific album anyway. Why on earth don't they hand those out more often?
Frankly other than music videos I just can't see them adding anything to the download to convince me to buy a full album that I otherwise wouldn't. Even then it would still probably be an album I would purchase in its entirety anyway. There are many bands that I enjoy and I always get the full album because I enjoy their music.
This leads me to another problem with this. All of a sudden this content is going to be available outside of iTunes....? So now I have cheaply made little apps for specific albums that I need to store and manage on my own randomly strewn about my computer.... No thank you. I remember the days of "enhanced cds" and thats an era of garbage I don't care to return to. I remember popping in a cd just to see a generic splash screen with minor behind the scenes nonsense and low quality videos. I can go to the artists' web site if I want to experience that. If anything, the second you make these things separate from iTunes then you've completely lost the functionality of how well iTunes stores and manages your media.
Lol, I hate to continue this negative rant but also linking this in anyway to the tablet device is a bit silly too. How many people are going to be using their 10" tablet device as a music player?
Add music videos and lyrics with the albums and make all extra media work with iPod/iPhone and iTunes and just maybe you can squeak a few extra full album sales out of people. As others have noted the singles that people buy in leu of buying full albums I'm assuming happens because there are so many single driven artists out there. In that case no one will be buying these albums even if you throw in a free hug.
Also, what good is the album liner notes when this information is freely available across the net? What extra things can they possibly tack on to encourage those that don't buy full albums to now start doing so? I could definitely see adding music videos free with full album downloads though. Music videos have almost always been commercials to convince you to buy a specific album anyway. Why on earth don't they hand those out more often?
Frankly other than music videos I just can't see them adding anything to the download to convince me to buy a full album that I otherwise wouldn't. Even then it would still probably be an album I would purchase in its entirety anyway. There are many bands that I enjoy and I always get the full album because I enjoy their music.
This leads me to another problem with this. All of a sudden this content is going to be available outside of iTunes....? So now I have cheaply made little apps for specific albums that I need to store and manage on my own randomly strewn about my computer.... No thank you. I remember the days of "enhanced cds" and thats an era of garbage I don't care to return to. I remember popping in a cd just to see a generic splash screen with minor behind the scenes nonsense and low quality videos. I can go to the artists' web site if I want to experience that. If anything, the second you make these things separate from iTunes then you've completely lost the functionality of how well iTunes stores and manages your media.
Lol, I hate to continue this negative rant but also linking this in anyway to the tablet device is a bit silly too. How many people are going to be using their 10" tablet device as a music player?
Add music videos and lyrics with the albums and make all extra media work with iPod/iPhone and iTunes and just maybe you can squeak a few extra full album sales out of people. As others have noted the singles that people buy in leu of buying full albums I'm assuming happens because there are so many single driven artists out there. In that case no one will be buying these albums even if you throw in a free hug.
Sounds to me just the entertainment industry trying to squeeze more $$$ after their success in increasing prices for digital downloads. (yeah, try finding a 69cents track , while more and more are $1.29 and many albums are going for more than $9.99, even on Amazon).
, while more and more are $1.29 and many albums are going for more than $9.99, even on Amazon).
I think what is being considered are highly-interactive "liner notes" that will work with 3G and later iPod nanos, 6G and later iPod classics, the iPod touch and the iPhone (in short, it'll be a variant of the Cover Flow system).
We'll see firmware updates for the 3G and 4G nano and the 6G classic (80/120/160 GB) to get this functionality.
We'll see firmware updates for the 3G and 4G nano and the 6G classic (80/120/160 GB) to get this functionality.
I used to run an independent record store and can attest to the narrow margins, but that's another subject, and one that's a bit painful personally.
So, back to lyrics... I may be one of the few, but I'd be willing to pay an OPTIONAL extra dollar per album -- or, say $0.10 per song -- to get lyrics if I knew that the money were going to the artist to help their, not the label's, revenue. It might be unrealistic, but who knows. Would be much better than going to shady websites to cut, paste, edit, etc.
There are a few cheap apps available for the iPhone/iPod Touch which find lyrics for songs as they're playing. It's great, but not quite seamless. And since I have a Touch, unless I've got Wi-Fi or the lyrics are cached from a previous look-up, I can't get the lyrics. Plus you can't embed the lyrics directly into the file. So this is a great stop-gap, but only that. And this could be a new revenue stream.
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