Apple Tablet to Recreate “Heyday of the Album (With One Good Song)”
by John Paczkowski
Posted on July 27, 2009 at 5:30 AM PT
Apple’s long-rumored tablet device may arrive at market before the winter holidays, not after them. This according to the Financial Times, which has managed to flesh out some recent reports coming out of China.
According to the FT, the “full-featured” tablet is being prepped to launch alongside a next-generation digital album format Apple (AAPL) is cooking up with the four largest recording companies, one designed to gin up sales of CD-length music.
“Cocktail,” as the project is known, is a new music format that will gather songs, photos, lyrics sheets, video clips and liner notes into a sort of interactive booklet. Said one executive familiar with the effort: “It’s all about re-creating the heyday of the album when you would sit around with your friends looking at the artwork, while you listened to the music.”
…skipping through nine middling-to-lousy songs to reach that one that inspired you to shell out for the album.
Which begs the question: Can that heyday ever be recreated? Now that we’re accustomed to purchasing only the music we want via the thin-margin, 99-cent-song-by-song downloads that iTunes pioneered, can we ever be convinced to pay a premium for bundled music, cluttered up with a bunch of liner notes, wacky band photos and throw away filler songs?
[Image Credit: Apple Insider]
