iTunes LP Seems Bound for Failure After Just Six Months
March 11, 2010 · Print This Article
In September, Steve Jobs unveiled the latest attempt to add value to the digital music download, and to distract people from the Web’s vast stores of free and illegal content. The iTunes LP adds photos, lyrics, liner notes, and other bonus content, and offer material not found on file-sharing networks — all to lure customers into buying full albums instead of individual songs. It’s been six months, though, and there are only 29 iTunes LPs available. And nearly half of those were available at launch.
So why did Apple’s supposedly revolutionary format fail Well, GigaOM points to a number of different factors, one of which is price. And we don’t mean the price for consumers. The initial batch of LPs were subsidized by Apple, according to one person who worked on the project, at a cost of up to $60,000 apiece. Then, there’s the fact that the format seemed superior suited for tablet devices, like the recently announced but still unavailable iPad. Artists have also begun opting to package bonus materials as apps for the iPhone and iPod touch, which offer a level of interactivity not afforded by the iTunes LP format.
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Filed under: Audio/Video, iPod, iPhone
iTunes LP Seems Bound for Failure After Just Six Months originally appeared on Switched on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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