| Wednesday, April 21, 2004 |
13:39 - Uh, Eighth Sign of the Apocalypse
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/com.apple.jingle.app.store.DirectA
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Now this is something I thought we'd never see until the humans went extinct and the cockroaches inherited the Earth: the iTunes Music Store now features Disney soundtracks.
I mean, how likely was this? I thought I'd read about Disney signing all kinds of exclusive deals to publish its online content only in Microsoft formats, through Microsoft channels. Besides which, Disney and Steve have been rather at odds lately, what with Jobs blowing Eisner off over the ongoing Pixar gunbattles. I'd have thought Disney would have wanted nothing further to do with Apple.
But then, Disney does have a history of choosing a losing technological path, sticking with it for about a year, and then abruptly changing course as soon as the higher-ups determine that it isn't going anywhere. Remember DiVX (the pay-for-play disc format, not the encoding algorithm)? Disney was a big proponent of it, and stumped for it in opposition to DVD. But when DVD sales exploded and DiVX tanked, Disney jumped ship and brought its whole animated library to DVD in a ridiculously short period of time. Now they're reaping the rewards of DVD, with special-edition box sets and oodles of extra features, with just as much gusto as New Line Cinema is.
So maybe they've determined that to pretend to be a forward-looking media company with a presence in the digital world, and yet not to be present on the far-and-away leader in the legal downloadable music and pop-icon runaway hit portable music player markets, is not just silly, but a bad, bad business move.
So welcome on board, Disney. Now bring along your Miyazaki soundtracks, and you'll be seeing a lot of the inside of my wallet over the next few days.
Hear that, Apple Records? Haah? Haaah?
(iPod-accessorizing story link via Steve M.)
UPDATE: Kevin points out that according to MacNN, this is an exclusive Apple deal until September 30. He adds, "Will they be jacking people around like they do with their limited release dvds?"
I notice that some of the Disney albums in the store are partial ones—not many, but some (including Lilo & Stitch, which is disappointing, but at least The Rescuers Down Under is complete—I've been looking for that one for years).
So yeah, maybe...
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Brian Tiemann
