Apple halting new iTunes LP content as of April, pulling existing bundles [u]
Apple will no longer accept any new iTunes LP content after March, and the company will in fact be removing existing content from the iTunes Store throughout 2018, a report indicated on Tuesday, which was later confirmed by the company.
"Apple will no longer accept new submissions of iTunes LPs after March 2018," Apple said in an email sent to music industry professionals, seen by Metro. "Existing LPs will be deprecated from the store during the remainder of 2018. Customers who have previously purchased an album containing an iTunes LP will still be able to download the additional content using iTunes Match."
iTunes LP was originally launched in 2009 as a way of making whole-album downloads more appealing, including the sort of extras sometimes bundled with vinyl records. Artists ranging from The Beatles and Taylor Swift through to downtempo electronic band Zero 7 have put out enhanced material.
As quickly as 2010, though, word emerged that the LP format wasn't having the desired effect. Allegedly it may not have been Apple's idea, but rather created as a way to placate the music industry, concerned about the tendency of people to buy individual songs -- typically just 99 cents at the time.
Since then Apple's music revenues have transitioned away from downloads in general, thanks to the 2015 launch of Apple Music. Rumors have sometimes swirled that the company will even abandon iTunes music downloads entirely in the next few years, but no concrete news has emerged. That might also risk upsetting record labels and artists, for whom downloads are far more profitable than the revenue sharing from streaming.
The Metro report suggests that the iTunes LP format possible demise is a sign of things to come, implying that Apple is intending to discontinue music sales on the service. However, there is nothing suggesting that is the case in the discontinuation of a nine-year-old bundling maneuver to try to get consumers to buy entire albums that never gained that much traction.
Update: Apple has confirmed that the iTunes LP format will not be accepted after March. Existing content will remain, and will still be purchasable and downloadable.
"Apple will no longer accept new submissions of iTunes LPs after March 2018," Apple said in an email sent to music industry professionals, seen by Metro. "Existing LPs will be deprecated from the store during the remainder of 2018. Customers who have previously purchased an album containing an iTunes LP will still be able to download the additional content using iTunes Match."
iTunes LP was originally launched in 2009 as a way of making whole-album downloads more appealing, including the sort of extras sometimes bundled with vinyl records. Artists ranging from The Beatles and Taylor Swift through to downtempo electronic band Zero 7 have put out enhanced material.
As quickly as 2010, though, word emerged that the LP format wasn't having the desired effect. Allegedly it may not have been Apple's idea, but rather created as a way to placate the music industry, concerned about the tendency of people to buy individual songs -- typically just 99 cents at the time.
Since then Apple's music revenues have transitioned away from downloads in general, thanks to the 2015 launch of Apple Music. Rumors have sometimes swirled that the company will even abandon iTunes music downloads entirely in the next few years, but no concrete news has emerged. That might also risk upsetting record labels and artists, for whom downloads are far more profitable than the revenue sharing from streaming.
The Metro report suggests that the iTunes LP format possible demise is a sign of things to come, implying that Apple is intending to discontinue music sales on the service. However, there is nothing suggesting that is the case in the discontinuation of a nine-year-old bundling maneuver to try to get consumers to buy entire albums that never gained that much traction.
Update: Apple has confirmed that the iTunes LP format will not be accepted after March. Existing content will remain, and will still be purchasable and downloadable.
Comments
Step 2: Make people dependent on iTunes downloads
Step 3: Discontinue iTunes downloads - force people to Apple Music subscriptions
Step 4: Vehemently defend class-action in court
Step 5: ROFL at morons who stick with Apple as a music source
So you have zero idea what iTunes LP was/is.
Albums were a way for the music industry to package more content from the musicians and sell it, whether it be less-successful music tracks or additional artwork and stories centered around the material. iTunes LP was a way to take that additional content, with its additional sales volume, and bring it to the download industry. The reality is that people don't want albums any more-- people aren't interested in the things the music industry wants to shovel at them and they have been in their death throes for a while.
If they don't embrace the changes they are being forced to endure I don't have much hope for them-- much like I don't have much hope for the brick-and-mortar stores and the DVD purchase industry-- these are industries that are being made irrelevant quickly by modern technology and the adage "adapt or die" is becoming more and more appropriate.
"Back in the day" you had a choice between a 33 LP album collection or a single song (with a backside) on a "45". Apple didn't invent anything new with the $.99 single...
For myself, I always preferred the album. Not because you got more songs. But because, in most well thought out albums, there was a continuity and a connectedness between songs -- much like you experience at a concert. They didn't/don't just throw random songs at you that were pulled out of a hat. There's flow that links them together and makes the whole experience greater than the sum of its parts...
And too, even going with single songs, one of the things we lost with Apple Music was to define your own genres (such as: "80's soft jazz") and assign individual songs to it. Yes, you can create play lists, but they are a hastle and don't actually do the same...