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White Collar Criminals

APPLE STILL TRYING TO MILK $$$ OUT OF WHAT’S LEFT OF THE RECORD-BUYING PUBLIC

 Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 at 3:30pm by

apple itunes lp and extrasOur broheims at Metal Insider alerted us to the fact that Apple has a new extortion scheme product called iTunes LP and Extras, which basically amounts to charging money for a product that’s typically free on a band’s website (videos, lyrics, liner notes, etc). Apparently LP and Extras has been available to major labels with existing iTunes deals for a little while already, but Metal Insider is reporting that the platform will be available to everyone else starting in early 2010.

My question to you… is anyone going to give a shit? I can’t see anyone but the die-hardest of the die-hard fans paying extra for this content, and these kinds of fans strike me as people who’d prefer to have a physical copy anyway. Beyond that, why shell out for videos when they’ll end up on YouTube? Why shell out for lyrics when you have Google? Why shell out for digital artwork when you can just visit the band’s website or have a physical copy? Is there something I’m missing here… some kind of extra super-cool features that are going to blow my mind?

I don’t get it. Total waste of money for the consumer, and total waste of time/resources on Apple’s part. This is fuck-tarded. Let’s get Spotify going in the States so all of this crap can end.

-VN

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  • http://farbeyonddriven87.tumblr.com/ voltron futura

    I love hard copies above all other forms of product, but I would never buy lyrics and artwork that I could easily copy and paste into the folder on my computer.

    • http://themetalgrinder.com M Kraatz

      I might pay an extra dollar or so for all of that content to be easily available and a little more pretty than just some files on my computer, but I’d also want to take that with me on my iPod, and the LP only works in iTunes. Fuck it.

  • pariah

    Spotify changed everything for me, it’s been available in Norway for quite some time. hope you guys in the states get to enjoy Spotify sometime next year!

  • key

    I still outright refuse to purchase anything from itunes at all, and to date the only amazon mp3′s I have ever paid for are God Forbid’s Stockholm Syndrome (not available or not worth it to track down a physical copy) and Moonsorrow’s Viides Likku, that 2 dollar metal album that was too awesome and too much of a good deal to pass up. Other than that I still buy physical cd’s. I rarely look at the liners anyway, for those that I own. Do they even put lyrics in those these days?

  • robw

    wat the f is spotify?

    • key

      Imagine pandora but you could stream what you wanted all the time.

      Imagine that it’s in europe now and the u.s. labels are too greedy to approve it.

      Imagine that.

      • http://themetalgrinder.com M Kraatz

        Spotify is still struggling to monetize their service, and labels can’t give away their shit without revenue, give it some time (early next year!).

  • robw

    i dont have to imagine greedy labels, thats fact.

  • Ryan

    I got one of these with Pearl Jam’s new album. Frankly, it’s kinda nifty. Think of Mastodon’s Cracktheskye.com, its similar. It makes listening to an album an experience again. Not sure how much extra it is worth on its own, but it is coupled with a higher bitrate than normal itunes downloads.

  • cosk!

    apple fanboys will hail this as just another apple innovation

    retards

  • Aaron R A

    There’s not a significant price difference, and it really does kind of add to the listening experience. Of course, I was always the kind of guy to sit down with the liner notes of any new album I got, so that’s a big influence on my opinion. Regardless, I have no problem with the iTunes LP thing and will probably continue to purchase them whenever they’re available on any albums I intend to get.

  • You Don’t Know Me

    I just want to note that it isn’t JUST lyrics and videos and stuff. Usually, you get bonus tracks with it too. At least most of them have bonus tracks. I think it’s a little bang for your buck. I don’t think it’s amazing but I don’t hate it either.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Robert-Livingston/25310975 Robert Livingston

    Who made the expert on what is considered a waste of money on the part of the consumer? Doesn’t the consumer decide that? Also, why bitch about this? If this is a waste on Apple’s part, then the program will fail, and it’ll come to an end.

    It appears that you refuse to accept that MP3′s are the thing and hard copies are becoming less sought-after. Sucks? Maybe, but most of my CD’s end up on my computer and iPod anyway, and purchasing on iTunes is much cheaper. If I really want artwork bad enough, depending on the price, I may purchase an actual CD. It’s called a cost-benefit analysis. I know, I know, it’s hard to grasp.

  • Jacob

    Fuck that, I want a god damn CD
    (That’s the only reason I’m debating whether or not to get The Binary Code’s stuff, I want a real, tangible thing.)

    • builtforsin

      I don’t think you want either if it has The Binary Code’s music on it.

  • Marcel

    So for an extra fee you can download stuff that’s already present in the physical copy. Wow. The music industry is really scraping the bottom of the barrel there.
    A few years ago some major record company (can’t remember which one) decided to release a barren version of some album. Only the cd in a cardboard sleeve…. for only 2 or 3 euros less than the the regular cd-case. I don’t know which fucktard thought up this idea, but I would have fired his ass on the spot.

  • pat

    I support people buying music, but think people who pay for digital music are dumbasses.