Elevate your collection with Apple Music's luxurious 100 best albums book

AppleInsider

Apple Musicis turning its "100 Best Albums" list into a luxurious collectible book, bringing iconic records from the screen to your shelf.


Apple Music: 100 Best Albums. Image credit: AssoulineEarlier in 2024

, Apple launched its "100 Best Albums" list directly in the Apple Music app, sparking plenty of lively debates among fans. Now, the company is releasing the list in a different medium.

The Apple Music: 100 Best Albums book is a heavyweight in more ways than one. It weighs 8 pounds and has luxurious touches like a linen cover, gold page edges, and an acrylic slipcase. Each copy is hand-numbered, making it a unique piece of music history.

It is being sold by Assouline.

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For the book's intro, Apple Music brought in Zane Lowe, who's well known for his in-depth interviews with artists and his passion for music. He sets the tone for what's inside, offering a bit of background on the chosen albums and why they deserve the spotlight.

"What we found," says Lowe, "is that truly great albums are more than just a collection of songs -- they become a part of you, a part of your life story. They're heartbreak, pain, trauma, joy, revolution, and resolution."

Alongside Zane, the book includes insights from a star-studded group of musicians and music industry insiders, like Pharrell Williams, Maren Morris, and Charli XCX. Apple really wanted this to feel like a true celebration of music, not just a greatest-hits list.

These picks are all about artistry and impact. A panel of Apple Music experts and artists curated these albums, looking for records that left a mark on music, culture, or both. Some of the albums are globally known, and others might be surprises, especially to anyone looking to expand their music horizons.

With 208 pages and 97 illustrations, the book, as first discovered by 9to5Mac, offers a visual experience for readers. High-resolution images of album covers, iconic photographs, and custom artwork accompany each entry.

Each album represents a chapter of music history, spanning rock, hip-hop, jazz, and electronic genres.

With a limited print run of 1,500 copies and a $450 price tag, each book becomes a rare piece. For music fans who value their vinyl collections or have strong memories attached to their favorite albums, Apple's music book offers an additional analog experience.



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emoeller

Given that Apple's limited edition design book is now selling on eBay for nearly $2500 (for the larger size volume) this might just be a good investment....

jeanobeano

Do you just plunk down the money without knowing what the “best” albums are?    Is there a list?    Who decided what was best?  What is the criteria for best?

crazy.

timmillea

For the price, Apple could have included a code to download their 'Best 100 Albums' rather than just read about them. 

badmonk

 jeanobeano said:

Do you just plunk down the money without knowing what the “best” albums are?    Is there a list?    Who decided what was best?  What is the criteria for best?

crazy.

The list is on wikipedia, as a longtime record collector, it’s a really problematic list—no music from Brazil, Africa, Japan etc and even if you take the anglosphere as a basis, it’s really problematic from a music geek perspective.  

Even if you look at the timeline of the picks most of them were from the last decade before the music had a chance to past the test of time and obtain cultural relevance.

No Sly and the Family Stone?  Seriously?

They should have turned to musicians and even critics outside of Apple to compose the list.

chasm

badmonk said:

The list is on wikipedia, as a longtime record collector, it’s a really problematic list—no music from Brazil, Africa, Japan etc and even if you take the anglosphere as a basis, it’s really problematic from a music geek perspective.  

Even if you look at the timeline of the picks most of them were from the last decade before the music had a chance to past the test of time and obtain cultural relevance.

No Sly and the Family Stone?  Seriously?

They should have turned to musicians and even critics outside of Apple to compose the list.

Agreed. It seems like sales and maybe a dash of critical praise in the US/UK were the factors behind the list of 100 "best" albums. That said, it is impossible to create a list of the 100 "best" albums that everyone is going to agree on, made even more difficult by the age range of the target market: survivors of the 1960s/70s who are now seniors are likely to have very different ideas to what kids of the 80s/90s would say about that, and of course the 21st century music fans will have yet another perspective and be wholly unfamiliar with "ancient" artists.