Update: Apparently, the original guy was in error. Somehow he was informed that there’s a $10k fee while Apple is saying there is not. They say: “There is no production fee charged by Apple. We’re releasing the open specs for iTunes LP soon, allowing both major and indie labels to create their own.” I just don’t know what to believe any more.
The whole world was bullish on iTunes LPs when they were announced; I called it a black eye for the majors, whose CMX format has yet to be popularized. But the hype was curbed when it was discovered that there was a $10,000 fee associated with the service, putting it completely out of reach for less affluent artists and small labels who can’t afford that price for promotion.
Luckily for them, Apple was nice enough to make the format rather basic. It turns out anyone versed in a little HTML and Javascript can put together an LP that’s just as good as a “real” one. It’s not as simple as drag-and-drop, and without Apple’s proprietary TuneKit library, some functionality is difficult or impossible to replicate at this point. But iTunesLP.net is trying to collect all the information you need into a few tutorials and demo files.
The site seems kind of hammered now, but I can see from what I’ve read there that really, a day’s work or less is all it would take to put together a serious ITLP. They’ve already released one: Disney’s 1957 Fantasia record, complete with high-quality art and program. Of course, you’ll need to get the album yourself, but if a record was ever deserving of the ITLP treatment, Fantasia is.
At this rate, it won’t be long before music promoters and designers will put “iTunes LP production” on their list of capabilities. The legality of this will be debated, but the demand is such that, like jailbreaking your iPhone, it’ll catch on with Apple’s blessing or not.
The question is, will Apple take positive measures to lock out third party ITLP files? That would be a spiteful move and a fiercely unpopular one, but the RIAA and other media giants have a history of spiteful and unwise actions (in fact, they make them almost exclusively) and Apple might follow in their shoes. The $10,000 fee is proof of that.
One may hope, though without too much expectation, that Apple will open it up and give out an affordable toolset for putting ITLPs together. Perhaps this fee business is just to stick it to the early adopters in big media, and then they’ll rain down love and compassion and SDKs on the faithful. But I doubt it.
[via Hack a Day]
I’m not sure what’s sadder: That Apple charges so much for this and makes it so exclusive or that it’s so damn easy for them to throw one together and they charge extra for it.
As a business, we approached labels to create applications which would include video, photos, and of course music with links to the iTMS. We developed a framework that allowed us to modify an application on the fly and databases that allowed us to feed content into the build. The objective was to ultimately bind those databases with web interfaces so that bands or labels could load visual and media content into the build process themselves. We were trying to to do for full applications what Kyte and such did for template-based WebKit projects.
It takes almost nothing to reach ten grand in development time, and most sites cost incredible amounts of money. Our costs were essentially something like $3-5K to develop a template like Bloodshot Records or Victory Records — Aiden (look in iTunes) and half that to either monthly update the package or build a new template based version. The templates are all custom. But, design costs money. I bet the graphic design for those apps cost double to triple what the LP costs.
Labels ultimately did not seem interested, but you have to understand that they are getting hammered themselves. I continually get calls, and just received two emails this morning. Two more bids… My feeling is that the media needs to be automated. We have the interaction models on the iPhone at least. Android is another story. But, the concept also needs to be pervasive across platforms.
My feeling is that such products will be sold as application packages with music exported to the library. This requires a cross platform solution, and I am looking at the problem now. The browser and its inconsistencies, and Apple’s desire to keep the fragile mind’s of their customers bright and shiny, is killing the scenario currently. That and nobody knows what to do next…
I put up a pretty detailed breakdown of the format on my blog. It goes through the format from both the technical and content side.
http://www.ericpaulsnowden.com/blog/index.php/2009/09/dissecting-the-itunes-lp/
Nice, I’m gonna add that in.
Unfortunately, only Apple can include them in the iTunes Store
I like Apple a lot. It. My love and respect for Steve Jobs is the only thing keeping me from cracking the hell out of iTunesLP…
Now CMX on the other hand, will not survive a week ;)
One last note from me:
@Eric
“In the end, the iTunes LP is just a simple HTML website. The first file web developers will notice is an index.html file, the default view for any HTML website.”
You are absolutely right. Any programer, and even more, a Mac developer can easy do impressive things with this.. bundle it and sell it on their own..
Labels don’t need to go CMX, just hire a guy to create these “website” folders and sell em to Amazon.
$10,000? Never.
yeah thats why in order to upgrade to itunes 9.0 you needed safari (which is basically what powers the itunes store)
It should probably be the other way around, but that is likely down the road.
The lack of dynamic content is the deal killer here. This can be template based and automated through a build process that exports the package. We could probably do this now with our CMS. I would want to see some uptake first. Anybody need a way to make hundred for a lot less than $10K?
The only reason they charge $10k is because Apple produces it. They have to pay for all the designers and graphic work that goes into it. If indie labels want to design their own LPs, they’re free to do so. They just won’t be featured in the iTunes Store, the same way you don’t see indie films or web “TV shows” in the store.
Yeah… have you seen an iTunes LP worth $10,000 in design work? I guarantee any designer you know could put together something just as good in 8 hours for a tenth of that. The market’s going to eat the “official” ITLP for lunch if they don’t get it under control.
“Perhaps this fee business is just to stick it to the early adopters in big media, and then they’ll rain down love and compassion and SDKs on the faithful. But I doubt it.”
I would imagine it’s exactly this; why the doubt? Could you hire a “graphic or web designer” for $100/hr for 10 hours? Sure. Can Apple prove the concept by maintaining a select library (lessons from the App Store and all that) of high quality albums and accompanying LPs, involving coordination of the designers behind the band and label to produce a unique and exciting product that the band, label, and Apple are happy with for a thousand? Doubt it. Hell, I can’t imagine a single piece of cover art for a major label, platinum album goes for a grand, do you?
People don’t understand the costs. iStockPhoto and Dreamweaver do not get you anything resembling a decent application.
The art and design costs at least as much as the app/html package. A typical illustration for an ad costs between $5K and $15K at the base levels. And, don’t forget the marketing budgets!
Anyone have the demo LP mirrored somewhere?
ding
$10,000..got to be kidding….is that the ALBUM or RECORDS itself…
Silly mortals, tricks are for kids not the buying public.
High quality art and low-fi music.
24/96 and 16/44 from a format that starts at $0 to create: http://www.str3em.com/The_Slip_(album)
Pow!
Oh and for you CMX guys looking at this, don’t do it… there’s a patent, and as you can see above, there is a format.
Apple dodged the bullet, and iTunes LP is rather neat anyways.
And why should I care about YOUR format that requires it’s own app? I’m not going to bother to find out if it enables good looking lps because your site looks like crap.
Well no, it doesn’t cost $0 to create. Time to create the music, time = money, producers and studio engineer (they don’t work for free), studio rental, studio costs, instruments, equipment and the feeding of Reznor’s enormous head.
NIN has only decided to make the music available for $0, that doesn’t mean that it costs $0 to create. It only means that only rich bands are able to offer music for free.
Q&A with small label owner Brian McKinney who broke the story @
http://www.aemmp.org/site/2009/10/12/itunes-lp-vs-chocolate-lab-records-q-a-with-brian-mckinney/
Nice interview. The market will be vastly different by next summer… I don’t believe that these tools are the holy grail, and neither does Apple. The commitment is not great.
You know what, let’s make this interesting.
I am going to add this specification to the STR3EM format, and will use this Fantasia product as the demo piece.
We will give all of you looking to do this much more power than iTunes could, and for PC and Mac…
My guys are on it now I expect to have it added in 2 weeks.
Cool stuff.
http://www.muztec.com/itunes/itunes-lp-costing-labels-10000-not-really.html
Seems that Apple would be preparing a full launch?
It makes most sense to create a new dashboard for labels with the ability to manage builds of these packages through a template based system. It could then allow labels of all sizes the ability to get a base product. Customizations could be created outside of this model.
Everybody needs to remember that there is exactly one person who deals with every small label in the iTMS. One vs hundreds.
Unless I’m mistaken, it wouldn’t be that hard to create an application which – when given a folder of MP3’s and the details about an album – could automatically generate an iTunes LP file.
You take artwork from Amazon, you already have the track list and further information could be got from last.fm and wikipedia.
It might not be as polished as the ones that are hand-crafted (or from Apple) but still…
Our objective was to essentially allow that as applications for the iPhone. We could place a web based template that a band or label could place media within through a web browser and a build could commence. Such a model could create albums that have a flip book and music.
Apple will not allow embedded music in applications when there is a counterpart in the store. This could be worked around if the band released the app first. But, who exactly wants to spend a $1,000 on such an application. In my experience, not many.
Will this work as a WebKit product? I’m torn. I believe that there is another solution and I am trying to get developer tools to support building a product on their platform. There is a reason WebKit apps did not draw out developers.
If the industry is going to a rich multimedia experience, it is not going to be done in cookie cutter format and templates. Apple needs a standard method but one that is flexible and rich. This is why we are only seeing less than a dozen lps from artists most likely to sell.
Apple isn’t going to prove any point by allowing 300,000 independent artists that only sell 30,000 copies of an album to produce lps that look exactly the same but for different template “styles.”
EDIT: “If the industry is going to REVIVE a rich multimedia experience”
Someone told me that LPs are created in Adobe InDesign and then a script is run to convert the document into the HTML bundle format.
Isn’t the format based on HTML 5.0? There are/will be thousands of programmers. Tasteful design may be harder to come by and cost more. I think Apple is looking at this format as value added to make digital more attractive, so just shoveling something together may not be in the best interests of labels or groups.
It’s actually HTML 4 strict with webkit extensions at this point, but yes, the use of HTML and the fact that we already know about the name TuneKit a month into the new format despite zero public information tells me this is essentially an API that will grow and will be slowly but surely released to a wider audience as Apple proves the concept on a select basis.
“Perhaps this fee business is just to stick it to the early adopters in big media, and then they’ll rain down love and compassion and SDKs on the faithful. But I doubt it.”
“We’re releasing the open specs for iTunes LP soon, allowing both major and indie labels to create their own. There is no production fee charged by Apple.”
http://www.macrumors.com/2009/10/13/itunes-lp-format-opening-up-to-additional-major-and-indie-record-labels/
Doh!
There is already a few indie bands distributing thier own iTunes LP’s.
Just search for the Tuesday Spoils iTunes LP for a good example of how easily it can be done.
Sooner or later, apple will open the doors for every user. Till now, I have seem many individuals distributing iTunes LP’s.