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Author Topic: Apple's iTunes LP charges  (Read 2358 times)

JimH

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Apple's iTunes LP charges
« on: October 09, 2009, 07:53:02 pm »

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Frobozz

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Re: Apple's iTunes LP charges
« Reply #1 on: October 09, 2009, 09:14:04 pm »

Wow!  I was actually holding out hope that the LP format was going to be a step forward.  It obviously is not.  And more evidence that Apple is not our friend.

There does need to be an open format similar in concept to Apple's LP.  Something to give digital albums a standard way of distributing what has traditionally been in the cover art and booklet.  Scanned cover art and booklet in PDF doesn't cut it.  Poorly scanned cover art and no booklet is no way to sell a digital album (Amazon I'm looking at you), especially a classical music album where the booklet is sometimes important in understanding the music.
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Frobozz

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Re: Apple's iTunes LP charges
« Reply #2 on: October 13, 2009, 10:06:50 pm »

iLounge has an update on the story.

Apple denies $10K iTunes LP production fee
Quote
Following a report from last week indicating that Apple was barring independent labels from releasing iTunes LP-formatted albums and charging a $10,000 production fee to create the associated files, the company has responded saying the prior accusations were false. Brian McKinney of Chocolate Lab Records was the originator of the prior information, and later contacted MusicWeek to add, “I should note that it is currently possible to design an iTunes LP independently. I’ve tested a couple designs on iTunes and they work great. The problem is that Apple won’t let you sell them through their store. So, the $10,000 production fee isn’t the barrier, it’s the exclusion of indie labels and artists by Apple. We love iTunes, hate exclusion. Hopefully that will change. Hopefully we will speed up the process.” An Apple iTunes spokesman dispelled the notion of any production fee in a later email, stating, “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.” Apple launched the iTunes LP format alongside iTunes 9 at its Rock and Roll media event on September 9.

By "open" I suspect that Apple means that anyone will be able to create the content but that only Apple will be able to sell it as part of an album and only through the iTunes store and that only Apple will be able to legally display the LP content and that will be only with the iTunes software.  That's my take on what they mean by "open".  We'll have to see.

Why does something like this have to be developed by a company with self serving interests rather than an organization that would develop the standards to be truly open?  The music industry is allowing their future direction in digital distribution and digital standards be dictated by Apple rather than taking charge and doing it themselves.  They're going to get screwed if that is the whole of their technology plans and direction.  Take charge and develop some open standards for this stuff please?  Open standards that everyone will be able to use and implement, and that includes indies.  The last bit of technology of any significance that we've gotten from the music industry was the RIAA phono equalization curve.  Come on, step it up.  Cut back on some of the lawyers and hire a technology department that has a vision.  That's the only way you'll get to stay relevant and dictate your own future.

Sorry for the rant.  I don't see a well organized or well managed or open standards based future in music and digital distribution and computer based playback.

And something else on ILounge:
Quote
A new website has sprung up called iTunesLP.net, offering tutorials on how to create iTunes LP files for albums that Apple doesn’t offer in the new format, as well as an area offering downloadable iTunes LP files—at the moment, only the Leopold Stokowski with the Philadelphia Orchestra soundtrack to Fantasia is available. On the About page, the team behind the site explains, “At this moment these iTunes LPs are available for a select list of new releases on the iTunes store. However we think it would be nice to have many older, out-of-print, obscure albums or albums on indie-labels to get the same experience; and with that in mind we started working on finding out exactly how this new format works, in order to share our results with the community.” [via TheDigitalLifestyle.tv]

I like that.  Fan developed LP artwork and content.  That could get interesting.
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ThoBar

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Re: Apple's iTunes LP charges
« Reply #3 on: October 14, 2009, 04:39:28 am »

Gah!

This format sounds like exactly what I was hoping MC would support via Matroska audio files... (multiple tracks, images and text etc in one file)

Now I bet MC will be forced to try and support this format instead - and Im assuming it will be closed and using filters that MC has trouble with (Quicktime)

[Edit] OK, I was a bit off the mark, sorry...  :-[  BUT I still want MC to support the matroska option :D
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MrHaugen

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Re: Apple's iTunes LP charges
« Reply #4 on: October 14, 2009, 04:54:16 am »

This sounds like a good thing. Except for the fact that Apple shuts all the competition down, again! I'd love to have a all-in-one container for music, documents and images.

What about the sound quality here? It's just a container for other file types like mp3 and flac?
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JimH

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Re: Apple's iTunes LP charges
« Reply #5 on: October 14, 2009, 07:15:07 am »

This format sounds like exactly what I was hoping MC would support ... ... (multiple tracks, images and text etc in one file)
We invented that idea 10 years ago:

Our press release from February, 1999.

An excerpt from it about one of our software components, Media Producer:

"The Media Producer extracts standard CD audio files and converts them to popular on-line formats such as RealAudio and MP3, encrypts them, adds images, adds liner notes, a track list and lyrics in Rich text; adds CDDB tracks; adds music videos; and adds web and email links. "
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ThoBar

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Re: Apple's iTunes LP charges
« Reply #6 on: October 15, 2009, 10:01:33 pm »

We invented that idea 10 years ago:

Our press release from February, 1999.

An excerpt from it about one of our software components, Media Producer:

"The Media Producer extracts standard CD audio files and converts them to popular on-line formats such as RealAudio and MP3, encrypts them, adds images, adds liner notes, a track list and lyrics in Rich text; adds CDDB tracks; adds music videos; and adds web and email links. "
So what happened to it? Having albums bundled into a single file is something I've always really wanted - it makes management of albums / disc sets so much easier and (top me) more intuitive.

Without having known about your format, and given the open nature of matroska - and its increasing usage, I have previously asked about MC becoming more aware of the 'packaged' matroska files - any chance of this happening? (or in your own format - I dont mind which)

My file system would love you forever if you could make this happen :)
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