Skip to Content

iTunes 9 Focus: iTunes LP



For me, the most exciting feature of iTunes 9 is iTunes LP. As a kid, I read CD booklets cover to cover, looked at every photo, saw who played what instrument on what track and who wrote the songs. That's an experience I've missed since distribution went digital, but I've accepted it.

A couple of years ago, Apple added digital booklets to to the iTunes Store, and some of them were quite nice. But even the best don't compare to iTunes LP. Today I purchased the deluxe version of "Come Away With Me" by Norah Jones [iTunes link] and spent nearly 20 minutes exploring it, just like the old days.

The album contains a bonus track ("Peace"), but the real fun begins when you double-click the "Deluxe Version" file and you're presented with something that resembles a DVD menu. A simple animation draws Norah's name while the first few measures of "Come Away With Me" are heard. From there, you're set to explore.

This album has seven options: Play album, songs, memorabilia, photos, videos, liner notes and credits. The first two do what you'd expect, accompanied by photos and lyrics. The memorabilia feature surprised me with pictures of backstage passes, the tour calendar and a "quickie rundown" of events from the 45th Grammy Awards (Norah's appearances highlighted).

There are sixteen photos and four videos including -- surprise! -- Norah's appearance on Sesame Street (much to my 4-year-old's delight). Finally, the full liner notes, biography and album credits are included, each with beautiful photos.

Music fans will love this feature, as will fans of participating artists. It's not like holding a record jacket or CD booklet in your hand, but that's an unfair comparison anyway. Paper liner notes don't contain videos, photos of this size or some of the other goodies. iTunes LP is a very welcome treat.

Check out the gallery below for screenshots.


For me, the most exciting feature of iTunes 9 is iTunes LP. As a kid, I read CD booklets cover to cover, looked at every photo, saw who...
 

Add a Comment

*0 / 3000 Character Maximum

32 Comments

Filter by:
Universal Indie Records

I spent the weekend working on creating my first itunes LP (first indie hip hop one) if any one's interested.

Though it's very basic, I learned a lot and it's not THAT hard to create one... so I can see a lot more indie artists going this route if we can actually get them into the itunes store.....


You can download mine for free at http://www.universalindie.com

October 19 2009 at 10:17 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
consumer_q

Hello,

I suppose these do not work with the AppleTV, right?

Nice tear apart jay, I look forward to a user friendly method to creating my own "LP". Maybe just prettying up a wikipedia or discogs entry and wrapping it up with the music for a quick iTunes LP. :-)

cheers!

September 13 2009 at 12:46 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to consumer_q's comment
kaslings

Indeed, it would be nice for me to take any associated music videos, maybe an allMusic review of the album and maybe even some scans of the original album art work (from my ripped cd's) and create my own "LP"

September 15 2009 at 12:14 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
jayrobinson

I went a little more in-depth on my blog, tearing apart the .itlp package that creates the iTunes LP experience. It's a WebKit site using only HTML, CSS and JS. Please check it out! http://jwr.cc/x/3

September 12 2009 at 12:05 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to jayrobinson's comment
darthspitz2005

Sweet stuff, man!! All powered by HTML, CSS, and JS....this is very, VERY exciting.

September 13 2009 at 10:13 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
bryan

Dave,

I'm curious, what is the size of the downloaded LP Album file? How does it compare to the size of a regular album?

If it's using HTML5, I'm wondering if the videos, pictures, music, etc. all reside as one file that is fully downloaded to your computer or whether this data is dynamic, i.e. the artist can update it at any time in the future. Also, whether you need an internet connection to view the material or whether it all resides entirely on your local machine.

Thanks for the post.

September 11 2009 at 6:07 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
darthspitz2005

I do like this idea, although I am sad that I already own the CD for "Come Away with Me", and being the frugal bastard that I am prevents me from purchasing an album that I already own. Unless it's Coldplay. Or AC/DC. Or Melody Gardot. Or...you know what, nevermind...I'll probably pick this up anyways. There goes a nice dinner date.

What I'd like to know is if there's a way for people to "roll your own" iTunes LP? I'm really curious to see what's the technology under the hood of these things. If I have the ability to roll my own stuff, that would be freaking amazing.

September 10 2009 at 3:14 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to darthspitz2005's comment
jayrobinson

@darthspitz2005, Having looked at the internal file structure of an iTunes LP, I believe it will be possible to roll your own with some practice.

@Bryan, It does resides entirely on your local machine. It does not appear to require an internet connection, two of my biggest concerns when I first heard about this!

I've noted the file size in my blog entry; it's quite hefty! http://jwr.cc/x/3

September 12 2009 at 12:15 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Matt

This is pretty much what I've NOT been waiting for in digital music. Give me uncompressed audio. Give me 5.1 or 7.1 channel music. Give me a way to back it up on physical media that can be played independent of iTunes. (This is why I don't buy any kind of video content from iTunes.)

September 10 2009 at 2:36 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Matt's comment
Grant Buell

Pretty sure you can burn iTunes downloads to CD.

September 10 2009 at 4:52 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Otsego_Undead

This is pretty much what I've been waiting for in digital music. I too have come to accept and embrace digital music (mostly for the instant gratification) but I refuse to part with my 500+ cd collection soley because I enjoy the packaging... Its actually sad to see it go, one of my favorite aspects of design.
However, iTunes LP sounds like the ticket. Hopefully this takes off and becomes mainstream. It finally brings back the experience of buying a physical cd... so now I just need to be able to view the same content on my iPhone and we're set. I also hope this is available to all artists, and not just the mainstream.
I also noticed that Apple isn't charging a premium for iTLPs either. The AiC and Muse albums are the same price as the non-lp versions last week.

This is definitely the biggest step in the right direction for digital music thus far.

September 10 2009 at 1:25 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Smivey

Nice feature, yes. But why did they take away the ability to minimize to the mini player? Now I have to use a keyboard command or do it via the menu.

September 10 2009 at 12:52 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Smivey's comment
ActionLog

The fix: Option click on the green button

September 10 2009 at 1:35 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mr Lizard

I'll never understand the 'zoom'/minimise button in iTunes.

Before, it switched to mini-player mode.

Now, it just moves the iTunes window down a bit.

:-s

September 10 2009 at 3:30 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Cartman005

What is the difference between these iTunes LPs and the old "Interactive Booklets" that used to come with some iTunes albums before a QuickTime security update broke them? I'm not talking about Digital booklets, these interactive booklets were .mov files. It seems like the LPs are just a glorified version of those with much more hype.

September 10 2009 at 11:54 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Cartman005's comment
artifex

Whew! Was it a security update that broke them?
All this time I wondered why my U2 box set booklet, for my black & white U2 iPod, was broken and wouldn't load.

Did Apple ever go back and fix these?

September 13 2009 at 12:44 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
John Hamilton Farr

"As a kid," I used to buy single 45rpm records. Not even LPs had been invented yet, and there wasn't anything to read on the paper envelope the 45 came in.

I used to buy tons of LPs. Have bought very few CDs over the years -- by comparison, the cost is simply too high. Now I find occasional tracks I like at Blip.fm, Internet radio stations, or other sources, and record them on my iMac. I almost never buy a CD, and to this date, I still haven't purchased a single song online...

When I do listen to music, it's through big speakers, never with an iPod. Can't imagine walking, bike riding, or doing anything else without being able to hear what's going on in my environment.

But mainly, I MAKE music. I play in a surf/punk band. :-) I pick up my resophonic bouzouki or my Guild 12-string. I sit outside and play my heart out.

Will take my time downloading this update, in other words...

September 10 2009 at 11:26 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to John Hamilton Farr's comment
manasclerk

I thought the comment about "As a kid, I read CD booklets cover to cover" pretty funny, too.

You can't put an iTunes LP on the wall, either.

As least they aren't quite as fragile as my 78s were back in the day.

September 10 2009 at 12:03 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Buy an ad here

Hot Apps on TUAW

Tweets

© 2012 AOL Inc. All Rights Reserved.