A friend sent me a link the other day to a post on a blog. The gist, as I understand it, is pretty well encapsulated in one particular section:
Out of curiosity I went to check out how much apple was asking for Jay-Z’s Blueprint 3.
$16.99, $16.99 to get me to pay for some mp4 files, a few music videos and the liner notes of an album. Apple you are making a mistake, if you want people to buy albums and not singles, charge the same $9.99 price tag. But no instead your going to ask people to spend $20 on some shit they can’t even take off of the computer.
Which, though it does it in a particularly shrill way, at least makes a decent point – The Deluxe Version of Jay-Z’s new album, The Blueprint 3, is going for $16.99 on the iTunes Store.1 The $6 difference between deluxe and standard, then, must be accounted for by the iTunes LP extras.
Which are as follows: (1) two music videos and (2) the LP package – the contents of which I am not privy to. Assuming that it’s fairly boilerplate, it probably just includes some photos, lyrics, a custom visualizer and some more videos. Admittedly, that’s not worth six bucks to me either.
But there are some things.
Most importantly, the music files are 256kbps AAC files and arenot DRM-protected – meaning they’re actually iTunes Plus files.2 Which, of course, have always been more expensive. One would expect that some dude who claims to be a vinyl fiend would appreciate the higher bitrate. Or at least notice it.
Second – and this one probably doesn’t interest the blog’s author all that much – the whole thing is entirely presented with HTML and CSS, all wrapped up in a Webkit package. The bottom line: no fucking flash.3 This last one isn’t really much of a selling point – it’s not like added value in the consumer’s pocket – but it’s a great move, as far as pushing the standards envelope is concerned.
On the topic of the price-gouging: $16.99 is, all said and done, not a terribly high price to pay for a “deluxe” album.4 Which is, in part, what’s making Chap foam at the mouth. In his estimation, nothing has changed:
All apple is doing is taking the old model of making 2000% profit on cds that collapsed, adding a few bells and whistles and telling me that $17-$20 for an “iTunes LP” is fair. So instead of getting an overpriced CD your getting some files on your computer. Guess what. I’m not gonna buy into it.
To that, I can only say that Apple has never, as a company, tried to push a bargain-basement image. They are and always have been unashamed price-gougers. We pay for the convenience and intuitiveness – the Apple Tax. To expect Apple to push prices down is to display a complete ignorance of Apple’s business ethic.
I’ll grant Chap this, though: despite Apple’s claim, iTunes LP is a pale replacement for a thoughtfully-packaged physical record. Further, it’s changed literally nothing about the record industry’s favored practice of tacking crap on top of a record and charging a few more bucks – other than the fact that there’s a little more art to the presentation and that the whole thing is digital. And, of course, there’s the bitrate bump. And, again no DRM.
But then again, Apple doesn’t really change things these days – they didn’t invent the mp3 player, the mp3 store or the smartphone. Apple helps existing things reach their potential. This is probably just as far as the Deluxe Album could possibly go. The main thrust of Chap’s argument concerns Apple’s failure to take the reins and really just change everything. Which is not really a great criticism – not unless you can give examples of how it could be better. Chap, like any consumer, just wants more for less.
Or, to frame it from a different angle, he believes that his ten bucks entitles him to a lot more than he’s getting. And maybe he’s right.
But he’ll never get it from Apple – a company that probably has no desire to destroy the music industry and uproot all those money trees. Now he knows.
- The regular version of the disc – with no bells or whistles – costs $10.99. Amazon’s got it for $9.99 – discounted from an apparent list price of $19.98. [↑]
- One note: now that Apple decided to bake Webkit into iTunes, it seems that we’ve lost the ability to see bitrates and metadata by right-clicking and choosing Get Info. Which I consider to be a pretty grievous loss in itself. I guess you’ve got to buy it before you see the nuts and bolts of what you’re getting. [↑]
- Really, I applaud this latest nail in Flash’s coffin. [↑]
- And anyway, it’s not like $16.99 is some standard price point. Muse’s new album, The Resistance (warning: iTunes link), is priced at 11.99. [↑]