Why Won't Apple Sell Your iTunes LPs?

jfruhlinger writes "Over the weekend there's been a bit of controversy over the fact that Apple has effectively shut indie artists out of the iTunes LP market by charging $10,000 in design fees. But the real question is why Apple is in charge of designing the new iTunes LP at all, since the format is based on open Web design technologies. There's at least one iTunes LP already available outside the iTunes store. Why won't Apple sell it?"

Re:LP?

[Cheesetrap]

It's part of that retro-is-new thing, all the kids are doing it, it's alltuhh-9ytujhff all the rage (sorry, electric typewriter keys got stuck - one of the hazards of being cool).

Re:LP?

[Yvan256]

Nope, videos are recorded in H.264, then recorded on vinyl. It does require a 50000 RPM turntable though.

Re:LP?

[RiotingPacifist]

50000 RPM. sounds like dependency hell if you ask me!

Re:LP?

[PRMan]

Yeah, it's too bad that MP3s can't store lyrics and additional artwork...

Re:LP?

[Darth_brooks]

The digital LP is a focus to get those things back, so you can have all your extras for the complete experience.

How are you supposed to sort the seeds out of pot on the back of a digital LP?

Re:LP?

[Anonymous Coward]

"So on a scale of usefulness from "necessary for human survival" to "would rather have my balls in a vise", it scores about a "meh"."

I'm confused. Given some people's attitude towards human survival and what is necessary for it, and some people's attitude towards, er, exotic activities between consenting adults, I have no clue where "meh" sits in the spectrum you've specified.

Re:LP?

[jonadab]

In the context of music, LP means a black vinyl record designed to be played on a turntable (usually at 33 1/3 revolutions per minute, sometimes at 45). They were popular in the sixties, but by the mid eighties they'd been pretty well totally phased out in favor of audio cassette tapes.

But, you know, everything old is new again. Audiophiles claim that LPs have a better sound (or a "warmer" sound, or they use various other audiophile jargon to describe it), which, although the improvement is not measurable in any rational or scientific sense (quite the contrary; there is a measurable *reduction* in technical quality), nonetheless makes them happier.

Apple wants to make music fans happy, so they record the music onto an actual LP (which is a fairly expensive process if you're only making one), then play it on a turntable and record the result to create LP recordings, which are then lossily-compressed to make tracks for the iTunes store, so that iPod users can enjoy the "warm", "red", "cylindrical", audiophile-pleasing sound of real LPs.

HTH.HAND.

Isn't it obvious?

[zenmonkeykstop]

A bad LP could bring down the cellphone network. Also, terrorism.

Re:LP?

[Hal_Porter]

Occasionally I find that I really don't like a certain track, so I will make a ripped CD with the offending track removed, but that's another matter. It's still (IMO) worth paying for the redundant data to get decent sound. Of course, there are some labels that offer uncompressed tracks separately (Magnatune, for instance), and good for them...

I DON'T KNOW WHAT PEOPLE ARE COMPLAINING ABOUT. THE COMPRESSED VERSIONS SOUND FINE TO ME. WHAT? CAN YOU SPEAK UP A BIT!