[LINK] iPad experimentation begins: e-media

[Ivan Trundle]

On 11/03/2010, at 12:00 PM, Stilgherrian wrote:

> On 11/03/2010, at 9:35 AM, Ivan Trundle wrote:
>> Rumour has it the the iTunes LP format is the bastard child of the RIAA, and if Apple had the chance, they wouldn't use it. The only reason it exists is to appease the RIAA, and has proved to be a spectacular, unmitigated flop.
>> 
>> But of course this is just a rumour...
> 
> On this point, an iPhone / iPad developer (their work is now almost entirely on the iPad) says:
> 
>    I can't speak to who was behind its inception, but iTunes LPs
>    are being given pretty high profile spots in the iTunes Store.

All 31 albums... that's a pretty poor number of albums in six months since Cocktail was finally delivered as iTunesLP.

>    I will say that having just completed a post-mortem of the new
>    Gorillaz album for a client, Apple seem to have worked very
>    closely with EMI on the iTunes LP's production.

>From a production standpoint, quite likely, and from a technical perspective, most certainly - but the gist of the rumour story is that albums are the tombstone of the recording industry, and that it only suited an earlier distribution mechanism. 

The rumour spreader insists that iTunesLP was not Apple's idea, and that although the recording industry conceded to Apple in offering DRM-free music via iTunes (mainly to counter Amazon, of course), this was seen as an olive branch from Apple to the industry.

Also, it hardly makes sense for a company that promoted the push into singles to suddenly attempt to revitalise the album format - even with iPads just around the corner (which suit iTunesLP formats far better than anything else that Apple have invented so far). And it is worthy of note that Steve Jobs didn't mention iTunesLP once during the iPad launch.

iT