Report: Apple, labels mixing musical 'Cocktail'

Apple and the major record labels are teaming up to create bundles of interactive features to accompany music downloads, according to the Financial Times.

The project, code-named "Cocktail," has Apple collaborating with EMI, Sony Music, Warner Music, and Universal Music Group with an eye toward a September launch date, the U.K. newspaper said on its FT.com site early Monday, sourcing the information to unnamed people familiar with the situation. Apple is known for making iPod- and iTunes-related announcements at September events.

Under the purported plan, people going to Apple's iTunes store to download music would also be able to get an interactive bundle that includes material such as liner notes, lyric sheets, and photos, according to the Financial Times. The "interactive book" would let users play songs without having to return to the iTunes software, the story said.

The goal, apparently, is to spark sales of digital albums, with a nod to the music-listening habits of a bygone era. While Apple has long sold albums over iTunes, the online music store is renowned for the fervor with which customers download single tracks. Apple already makes album cover art available through the Cover Flow feature in iTunes.

"It's all about re-creating the heyday of the album when you would sit around with your friends looking at the artwork, while you listened to the music," said an executive cited by the Financial Times.

In 2008, according to industry tracker Nielsen, consumers bought over 1 billion digital tracks, compared with just 65 million digital albums. In both cases, the numbers were up significantly from the preceding year. All told, however, the number of albums sold in 2008--including CDs, LPs, and digital albums--fell 14 percent to 428 million.

The Financial Times article also touched on recent reports that have Apple working on a tablet device. The FT.com story says that such a device, possibly equipped with a 10-inch-diagonal touch screen, could be ready in time for the holiday shopping season.

[stevicus]

"The 'interactive book' would let users play songs without having to return to the iTunes software, the story said."

Some how I just can't see this. Apple seems to want everything done in iTunes

[smallvoice]

There is nothing wrong with poems set to music. But, avoid music that is ungodly, that is, that which is contrary to what the Bible teaches, especially, you who are children. All the good teachings of your parents will be replaced by these bad musics' evil inculcation. Some songs have "Satan is my lord" when you play them backwards.

[Perry_Clease]

???

[ckh1272]

Actually, I just played a song backwards and it said "why the heck are you playing me backwards you idiot?". Thanks for the biblical spam.

[Dalkorian]

I didn't think people this stupid actually existed. I guess we learn something new everyday.

No, that wasn't a personal attack. Give us some evidence of your claims, what song has anything decipherable when played backwards? What song says "Satan is my lord" when played backwards? What evidence do you have of your outrageous and often refuted claims?

Stupid is as stupid does.

[thabassman]

wow.... that isn't offensive to atheists like myself at all. There is no god, there is no satan.

[al2o3cr]

@Dalkorian: you didn't think people this stupid existed? Have you been hiding out underground for the last year? Between the Talibunny, the Teabaggers, the Birthers and now Senior Citizens on Medicare Against Government Healthcare, the evidence is all around...

[mavfan2]

You forgot the 9/11 conspiracy theorists and those who thought Bush planned to cancel the 2004 election days before it was scheduled and would declare himself President indefinitely.

[hypermark]

Personally, I think there is something afoot in terms of Apple extending its platform tools to support creation of more dynamic e-books and albums.

Think of this pitch this way:

Steve Jobs: "Book and Music industry. You are getting commoditized because you have no differentiated platform for extending/re-inventing your product for the online age. We just so happen to have a set of tools that have proven compelling to the tune of 1.5B downloads, field-tested across 65K apps and with a current footprint of 46M devices."

Music/Book Industry: "There is no way we can re-create that value proposition, and we already see the writing on the wall with Amazon. If they are successful, they will be telling us how much money we can make or worse, go direct to writers and musicians, and design us out of the equation. How do we get started?"

This is the consummate 1+1=3 for a segment that is otherwise facing a 1+1=<2 future.

For more fodder on this one, check out:

Cheers,

Mark

[CNET editors' note: Promotional material deleted]

[Mark_Anderson]

Sure, the prospect of receiving some photos and notes is adequate compensation for buying half an album's worth of filler. Or not.

Someone should tell Apple that one of the reasons iTunes is so good is that you CAN buy single tracks, not just teh album.

[mikeburek]

It would be great if albums included all the lyrics and pictures and such. About halfway through the cassette era, the music industry decided to stop doing that. If physical media still contained those, they were a good reason for people to still buy the physical media over illegal downloads or just digital downloads. But it was the music industry's idea to save a few cents per album, and then they lost a lot more than a few cents per album.

Also, a big reason to buy just single tracks now is that usually there are, at most, a handful of good songs in each album. Many albums also have repeat tracks from previous albums. Why would people spend money on something they don't want, or something they already have? If albums contained more songs that people liked, and had less redundancy, then people would buy more full albums.