This is probably a question that the record labels should be asking, but I’ll ask it here anyway: how do you guys listen to music in 2009? On your iPhone (or whatever portable device, it doesn’t matter for the purposes of this here post)? On your computer while you surf your favorite Web sites? At the gym? Now, how many of you will sit in front of your computer, and devote 100 percent of your attention to the iTunes visualizer? Not too many of you, I’d venture to guess.
That’s the problem, as I see it, with iTunes LP, which Apple announced last week during it “Rock and Roll” event, which was characterized by a noticeable lack of rock and/or roll. Now, as I said during our live play-by-play podcast, it’s not like the addition of iTunes LP is bad in and of itself; fine, add it, doesn’t bother me. It just seems so… strange.
This man, Jay Robinson, bought the iTunes LP edition of Jay-Z’s The Blueprint 3. Included in the purchase is an “ITLP” file, which is quite large (up to 500MB). Launching the file, you’re then taken to a table of contents of sorts, from which you can select to play all the songs, read the lyrics, look at some photos, etc. Again, Apple is trying to recreate the feel of “owning” a proper LP. One problem is that, if you’ve never owned an LP, how can you replicate that feeling?
The actual bonus items, again, are fine: some pics, a couple of videos, etc. That’s all fine and dandy. But if you’re never near your computer, if you’re doing your primary listening in the car on the way to work, or at the gym while they play MTV Presents: Some Piece of Junk, Part 2 on the TV, what good does having lyrics or photos handy do? Unless you’re hunched over your computer devoting 100 percent of your attention to the album, all those extra features are lost on you.
I’m trying to think how I mainly listen to music, and it mainly happens when I play World of Warcraft. I can load up Vox—like Devin, I’m a little tired of iTunes taking up incredible amounts of RAM and processor power to play a couple of MP3s—then go about my business in the game. The game volume is kept just loud enough to hear the clash of steel, and the casting of my Shadow Bolt spell, that I can still hear The Blueprint loud and clear. At no point am I thinking, “Man, I’d also love to be able to read the lyrics to ‘On to the Next One’ while I’m fighting trash.”
Again, there’s nothing wrong with iTunes LP per se, it’s just that it seems to deliver something that I can’t seeing be too useful most of the time. And never mind the price: $16.99 for The Blueprint 3, while the standard edition is $10.99. A whole $6 extra for something that I’m never going to use?
Of course, you’re free to call me a giant idiot, I’m just trying to start some sort of hot topic on a Sunday is all.
@nicholas: Your’re not an idiot.
One of the objections to albumized music is having to buy a whole album to hear the three or four songs you like. In response to the fire-sharing era music companies woke up, allowing songs to be sold individually.
If Apple’s intent is to reverse this trend, LP is DOA.
Can it be somehow related to the apple tablet?
i’d venture a guess that a lot of legit musicians, music producers, etc. would love to have lyrics (especially for rap and hip-hop songs haha).
While you may represent the average wow music listener, you almost certainly do not represent the average music listener. I’d venture a guess for “music is their life” people (and there’s a lot of people like that), they’ll be buying itunes LPs for their favorite albums.
http://letmegooglethatforyou.com/?q=jay-z+lyrics
Problem solved. $6 saved.
Haha, exactly what I was thinking. Then maybe youtube the music videos? They’re probably not something you’re going to sit there and watch over and over, as Nicholas suggests.
Imho,”Music is their Life” people aren’t listening to crappy Mp3s on their expensive home systems especially from their PCs. They probably already own a nice & valuable collection of well kept Vinyl or quite a bit of MFSL standard CDs…BUT, if the “Music is their Life” crowd consider Jay-Z music then they must be tone deaf and lack a “trained” ear & probably think that Mp3s are CD quality,so, my point is invalid.
I think Nick makes some valid points. I don’t see the big deal of LP.
If the rumours are correct then this LP format is intended for the fabled (already overhyped) iTablet. And I guess it’s cheaper to buy the LP than the song and videos separately. Your point is valid though. Clicking on a menu is not the like the first time you opened a NIN special edition. If labels want people to buy whole albums, they should be priced exactly the same.
The premium content should come with just buying the full album, how many people do that at all anymore. I think if you told people it was 10.99 for the album which included these extras that would actually get people to pull the trigger on it rather than just picking up their favorite 2-4 songs from the album. That would also get all of the bands music out there which you would think they would like too.
The whole point of LP is to try and convince you to devote 100% of your attention to music. The music industry can’t be happy that the majority of the time when you are listening to music you are only half listening. In other words, you focus on other things while listening to music. They want to go back to the good old days when people would spend hours listening to music, reading liner notes, and looking at album art.
They know that this isn’t the way people listen to music now but they are hoping that people will eventually go back to listening that way. Maybe not everybody will, but in the meantime they get to make a little extra profit on the people who are really interested in their music.
Hi,
I do understand the needs/wants/desire to have LP features on the go. But to me, LP is something that should be admired in a peaceful environment, when you have time, on a big screen and not on an iPhone. Yes the times have changed and we want things ON THE GO. So yes I will agree that some aspects of LP need to be changed to we can view it on the iPhone or iPod Touch. But i still think LP is great iTunes exlcusive content that should be enjoyed on a screen bigger than the iPhone and should be enjoyed in a quiet, dedicated environment. Perhaps the rumoured Apple Tablet and iTunes will offer the same experience of iTunes lP ON THE GO. Also I bought a few albums that are iTunes LP for the same price as albums in stores. The BLUEPRINT 3 LP edition is a RIP OFF, I MAKE THE POINT THAT LP is great when you have the same price as normals albums but extra stuff (LP features). If you INCREASE THE PRICE BECAUSE OF LP, THEN the idea of LP which is to increase albums sales is SERIOUSLY FLAWED.
But this is just my two cents.. thanks !
I don’t get it either, then again, I have never purchased digital music. Any music I do buy, I buy a physical CD, and if said music is digital only, I just pirate it anyway. I can’t see how a little extra digital content can be worth the $6 or so extra bucks. If people want me to buy albums, take a look at a lot of Metal music these days. It’s hard to find a release these days that doesn’t include a t-shirt + CD-Digitpack for $20. Those are the kind of releases I throw money at.
Its SO simple!! Go to the basement with some friends and apple’s soon to be announced tablet. Sit in a circle. And while passing a blunt, bowl and or bong play an iTunes LP and pass it one person behind the blunt, bowl and or bong.
Jim
Hi Nick,
I don’t see that your concern is a real issue. You read the faked up LP stuff only once, then you resume daily activities. No different than reading a real LP with liner notes.
As for me, I buy CDs.
You can buy actual LP’s from Urban Outfitters (and I’m sure other places), I think they are about $15 so those plus an LP player (I’m young, I have no idea what they’re called) would make the iTunes path pretty pointless.
I go with Nathan Griggs except for the metal. Music is extremely overpriced. After huge successes by some self made artists the record industry ‘invented’ a market and business model which is just stupid, expensive and blocks true talented artists, except for a few. This model is by design and it makes no sense. Well, maybe if you are 14 years old and never heard anything else than crap.
There are hardly new songs produced that are really creative or everlasting. Most songs are simply trash. Sometimes it’s impossible to listen to a song because of terrible musical errors in compositions, plain plagiarism or false singing. It’s incredible what garbage is produced and pushed these days. In Holland we hear a lot of late seventies, eighties and early nineties songs on the radio lately. Some stations don’t even play other records anymore. I guess there are more people tired of record company produced ‘unique talents’ with ‘hits’.
Asking the full amount for a 30 year old record which you already bought, sometimes twice, is crazy. CD’s in the Netherland are already very expensive. Some folks at the record companies still think it is 1920 and you must hire a ship to transport fragile 78rpm records. No thanks. We also pay a fee per CD rewritable, harddisk and USB stick because the record companies convinced the Dutch government everybody is using these media to store illegal MP3’s. You see, I don’t like record companies really.
So I download MP3’s occasionally. I already have most records I really want. If there is something new and very special I’ll go to the store. Buying digital music online with DRM and crap? No thank you very much.
This is something I’ve been thinking of too, you’re not alone in this, Nick. The format seems to be kind of pointless for desktops/laptops since most music listening tends to be when doing other things that capture your attention. If the Apple tablet shows up in the near future, then it may be a little more viable. But paying 6$ more for what seems to be the same value content as the extra stuff you get on DVDs, i.e. videos you watch perhaps once and then never again, or image galleries you browse through once, and then never again. The perceived long-time value of the content for this format seems to be zilch, since it’s just non-interactive.
Why not just buy the regular vanilla edition and save the 6$ for something else, like a cool app for the phone or some good sale on a meatspace CD on Amazon?
Like Trix is for Kids, not silly rabbits, iTunes LP is for normal people, not computer nerds.
I disagree.
I bet most “normal people”, either will still buy normal CD’s or singles on itunes.
Agreed. I much prefer to buy CD’s still, and rip them in 320kbps mp3, or higher in another format. Also being a DJ its almost a necessity.
I’ll bet only mac loving freaks will go wild for these “LP’s”.
you mean rich people
“I’ll bet only mac loving freaks will go wild for these “LP’s”.”
Stupid comment! Like only Mac people have adopted itunes!
They do call it “standard” for a reason
there will also be exclusive LP content – see the presentation about The Doors LP. It has video from Ray Manzarek recalling how the band was formed, and some other pretty snippets not seen before.
“Again, Apple is trying to recreate the feel of “owning” a proper LP. One problem is that, if you’ve never owned an LP, how can you replicate that feeling?”
Ok Nicholas time for a grammar lesson.
Apple is the one recreating the feeling, the consumer is the one experiencing the feeling. The fact that a consumer never owned an LP before has no bearing on Apple’s ability to recreate the feeling or the consumers ability to experience that feeling.
My cousin explained to me why he thinks buying albums are the proper way to listen to artists music. Stuff about the flow of the album and such. It’s lost on me since I’m a one song buyer, but there are people that have interest in having nice covers and liner notes. I used to buy some expensive vinyl record albums with lots of stuff in them, but I would barely glance at that information. I get the record out of the package as quickly as possible and listen to one or two songs over and over and that was it. Most of my albums I bought, I never listened to more than one or two songs. Years later I had gone back and listened to other songs from old albums and said to myself I missed out on some other songs that were really nice.
I don’t know if it’s important from a buyer’s viewpoint, but if I was a musician or artist, I’d want to put everything that had to do with putting that album together in some sort of package to let others know what pains it took to create.
I do believe if Apple builds a nice tablet that there should be plenty of people that would love to listen and delve into an LP format. I don’t know if it would be a big success, but I think Apple should give this LP format a shot.
Forget computer nerds and wanna-be professionals. You can’t convince them of buying anything simple. They’re just too smart for their own good. They can’t seem to get on the level of the average person. Everything seems too beneath them. It has something to do with high-tech arrogance. They can’t enjoy things if it doesn’t have the highest quality money can buy, so they think that nobody can.
I wrote about The Doors iTunes LP here.
http://blog.albumartexchange.com/2009/09/a-look-at-itunes-9-and-the-itunes-lp.html
People are writing about using the iTunes LP on tablet and laptop computers, but the one I downloaded was over half a GB in size. How many are you going to get to fit on your hard drive?
As an album art enthusiast, I was somewhat disappointed with the size of the image files. They are suitable for standard multimedia, but those of us with large high resolution monitors don’t get a large display (the cover image is less than 800 pixels square).
I would be happy to go on at length to defend the idea of the music album (vs single songs), but I can’t see defending the iTunes LP take on it. The price is too high for mediocre sound quality and the art and lyrics don’t make up for that.
Until someone does a lossless long play digital format I will stick to buying CDs and the occasional LPs and ripping them myself.
It’s really a simple concept. Buy one song, you only get the one song.
Buy the whole album, get some extra “LP only” goodies.
This is America. Land of walmart, Costco, BJ’s and numerous other “BUY IN BULK” wholesales. Apple is finally marketing music as such for the whole music industry. Needless to say, I would love to have itunes LPs for some of my favorite albums (if the beatles ever get on itunes haha)
Now if only someone would give Kanye a “Swift” kick to the nuts. Honestly, that was just plain embarrassing last night.
Today’s generation doesn’t really understand (or appreciate) the full album concept that many musicians still go by. It’s how the artist presents their art.
Today’s generation is used to singles and multitasking MMO’s, surfing and whatever at the same time as listening to music, making music a background filler to fill out their otherwise empty lives.
iTunes LP is trying to get focus back to music and the experience of actually LISTENING to an album, instead of having singles playing in the background.
So if one of the members of the parasite generation would actually sit down and try to appreciate the music in the way the artist intended (you know, hearing how the songs tie in to eachother and creates a big picture)…then maybe that person could understand the point of iTunes LP.
It’s not really surprising that this isn’t happening though.
As someone who grew up buying albums and tapes in my young days and being a computer nerd, I was excited about the itunes LP offering. I still listen to some of my old CDs on my iphone in album format because the songs just seem to flow. Who can listen to Queen’s ‘We will rock you’ without starting to hum ‘We are the champions’ when it ends. I wanted to go back to that feeling of riding my bike to the store and buying the latest Van Halen CD and listening to all the songs while looking at the art and reading along with the lyrics.
Unfortunately, the size is huge for these things. I do want to have the whole album on my iphone and scroll through the pictures as it plays and pull up the lyrics…I already do that now.
I’ve also moved on and don’t buy my music by the album anymore…besides I don’t think artists actually put in the time to make a great album anymore like they used to. They also know that people don’t listen to this. But for those great albums from the past, I’d love to get all the art, interviews, videos and lyrics. I think I will get it for some albums out there…if they offer it for old ones that I already have…I don’t want to purchase the whole album again for the LP experience.