| Tuesday, November 23, 2004 |
15:47 - You too?
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=30923368
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iTunes has this new monstrous $150 Every U2 Song EVAR boxed set available now. Interesting presentation in the Music Store; as a set of albums, its listing shows every component album as an expandable list. That's a lot of songs to scroll through.
But the notice that was sent out (by Apple) to all iTunes customers, announcing this item, touted its liner notes, album art, booklets, and other print features—all parts of the physical boxed set. Not, presumably, of the downloadable version.
Or is it? At the band's iTunes page is verbage for the product: Along with the music, The Complete U2 includes a digital booklet with album art, track listings, and band commentary. And it's only available on iTunes.
Does this mean iTunes is finally beginning to branch into downloadable products comprised of other digital assets than the bare music tracks themselves? It's been a medium just itching for such an expansion—PDFs, videos, printable items, all sorts of things that don't even have to conform to the necessary format to fit into a box. The only sticking point has been how to protect them from piracy, if that's a concern. I guess it's at last been decided that it's not worth worrying about.
That's all to the good. If the iTunes music-buying experience is missing anything, it's the presence of premiums and "extras" for the customer to be able to paw at and feel make a particular purchase "special". DVDs have had all their extra features for a long time now, and they've taken on a life of their own, with DVD producers falling all over themselves to out-premium their competitors. It seems it's finally time for the music industry to follow suit.
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Brian Tiemann
