I Eat Music

It’s all been about the iPad this week, hasn’t it? Well, not all of it, but certainly some of it. And, in some small part, that has been my fault.

First off, tech blog Pocket-lint asked me to contribute to a feature called How The Apple iPad Will Change The World. I gave my thoughts on what effect it might have on the music industry both before and after the launch.

Then, not content with filling other people’s publications with my words, I went and dedicated my editorial in CMU Weekly to the iPad, as well. Here’s what that looked like:

I do so love an Apple product launch. The hype that always precedes them can only ever mean that the new thing Steve Jobs trots out with will be a big disappointment by comparison.

I suspect that this might be part of the plan, though. People always flock to point out that the latest Apple gadget is pointless, unoriginal and over-priced. And then what happens? Once the products are actually released – with our expectations reduced a little – those devices seem rather cool. And so you have the iPod, the iTunes Store, the iPhone and all the rest. The impact all those things have had is undeniable, despite all the initial naysaying.

Will that be the case with the iPad? Only time will tell. So far its main contribution to the world is to fill Twitter with jokes about “Dom Joly’s new iPhone” and iTampons. It’s certainly not the home computer replacement I was hoping for, and nor am I going to start carrying one around in my bag instead of my iPhone (I’ll still need that for phonecalls, if nothing else). However, if, as I suspect, the iPad turns out to really be the uber-terminal for accessing online content, at home or on the move, it becomes more attractive.

Following their purchase of digital music platform Lala.com late last year, it’s been rumoured Apple might launch a service that would let you store your entire iTunes library online, ready to be accessed from anywhere. If that included films as well as music, and assuming WiFi and mobile internet connections can handle it, you’ve suddenly got a fast, friendly and lightweight way to access all your entertainment content from anywhere.

I’m not entirely sure if that’s something worth having in addition to a laptop. Possibly not. But if you only really use your laptop as an online entertainment centre, well, then why have a laptop at all? And you should never underestimate Apple’s ability to sell something people didn’t think they wanted by the millions. As with all these things, it’s the content that really makes it what it is. All you need is one truly great app to make the iPad a must-have.

Read this edition of CMU Weekly in full here.

Paul McCartney has again blamed EMI for the absence of any Beatles music on legal download sites, saying that allowing the band’s music to be used in the new Beatles ‘Rock Band’ videogame, which is released today of course, was the band’s way of getting round the EMI issues.

I still can’t quite get my head around continuing Apple Corps/EMI politics, especially as there are now different people representing both sides, and surely both the Beatles company and the major have so much to lose by depriving legit download stores from the Fab Four’s music, but whatever, I’m sure if Macca says all the fault is on EMI’s side of the table that has to be true.

Anyway, here’s what McCartney told the NME about all things digitally Beatles: “We were having problems with iTunes – well not iTunes, EMI was the problem – with downloading, which we’d like to do because that’s how a lot of people get their music. We’ve kind of bypassed that [download problems] because now you can do it in ‘Rock Band’. I always liked that, when you’re told you can’t do something and suddenly there’s a little route round the back”.

Asked for opinions on the gameplay aspect to ‘Rock Band’ he admitted: “I haven’t tried it. When you go to a demo they play it and I go, ‘God that looks hard!’”

By the way, everyone seems certain – and Macca’s comments presumably confirm this – that Apple’s big music announcement today won’t be anything to do with the Beatles and more to do with some new iPod developments and that enhanced album format thingy that everyone seems to insist on calling ‘Cocktail’. As previously reported, with so many Beatles-related launches today, some thought Apple’s decision to stage a music-related press conference too meant they had to have a Fab Four announcement.

Written with Chris Cooke

Spotify’s long-awaited iPhone app will appear on iTunes in the next few days after making it through Apple’s review process, seemingly without any significant changes from the original submission.

A spokesperson for Apple told paidContent yesterday afternoon: “The current status as of right now is it’s been approved and we hope to add the app to the more than 65,000 apps on the app store very soon. We’ve been in constant communication working with the developer and have already notified Spotify that the app will be in the app store very soon”.

Spotify chief Daniel Ek added via Twitter: “Yes, I can confirm that Apple has approved the app. We’re happy but have had a great dialogue with Apple all the way. They’ve been great!” And, although it’s not yet available to the public, he posted ‘I Gotta Feeling’ by Black Eyed Peas to Twitter using the app. It’s not clear if this is because he was hinting that there’s more news on the horizon, or if he just has terrible taste in music.

As previously reported, the app will allow Spotify premium subscribers (that’s the seven or so people who’ve opted to pay £10 a month to get the service ad-free) in the UK, Sweden, France, Spain, Norway and Finland to not only stream music, but also cache playlists for offline listening. This latter feature led some to call the app an “iTunes killer”. But as we all know, people who use that phrase are usually idiots who don’t know what they’re talking about.

While it’s unlikely that it will topple iTunes’ dominance in the music download field, it is likely to sell a lot of iPhones, which is good news for Apple. It’s even better news for Spotify, as this, and its other forthcoming mobile apps, are likely to be the key to convincing more people to sign up for their paid service.

Take a look at the app here:

Nick Cave’s second novel, ‘The Death Of Bunny Munro’, will be made available as an iPhone app, it has been revealed.

The iPhone edition, which will apparently be released before the print version, will allow readers to change fonts and colour and add virtual bookmarks when you decide to stop reading (you know, like a book). The text will automatically scroll up the screen (the speed of which you can adjust depending on your reading speed) and the audiobook version will be bundled with it. But the most interesting part is a feature that allows you to switch between the audio and text versions. If your eyes get tired, just pop in your headphones and Nick Cave will arrive (ie in recorded form, he will not actually ‘arrive’) to read the rest to you.

Nick Cave and Bad Seeds collaborator Warren Ellis have also composed a soundtrack to the book, although I’m not entirely sure if this is included in the iPhone app or not.

The hardback edition of the book will be published by Faber & Faber on 8 Sep. Cave’s first novel, 1989’s ‘And The Ass Saw The Angel’, will be re-issued to coincide with the new release.

More on the major labels’ attempts to reinvigorate the albums market by releasing digital packages that also include videos and lyrics and what not. I think this might be the one we reported on before – but it might be another – there’s lots of these ideas buzzing around at the moment. This one’s called CMX and should be available via November.

The labels hope that CMX will revive album sales. Although nine out of ten single sales are currently digital, nine out of ten album sales remain physical and the volume of sales is shrinking. According to The Times, the labels approached Apple 18 months ago to launch the format through iTunes but were knocked back. Apple has since launched the iTunes Plus scheme, of course, which gives fans added extras in return for paying a little extra for an album, and is also reported to be working on its own enhanced digital album format, called Cocktail.

A ’senior record label insider’ told The Times: “Apple at first told us that they were not interested, but now they have decided to do their own, in case ours catches on. Ours will be a file that you click on, it opens and it would have a totally brand-new look, with a launch page and all the different options. When you click on it you’re not just going to get the ten tracks, you’re going to get the artwork, the video and mobile products”.

They added that CMX would only be available on a handful of releases initially, in case it turns out to be as shit as it sounds. The source said: “We are not going out in force. What you are going to see is a couple of releases thrown out there to see what people like. We are working with the retailers now”.

A spokesman from the Entertainment Retailers Association told the paper: “It is the great conundrum of the age: what would an album look like online? At the moment a download in no sense replicates that satisfying quality of a physical album. Think about the importance of the gift market for albums. Online it’s stripped down to the bare music, and there’s a lot more to an album than that”.

HMV’s Gennaro Castaldo added: “The price of a CD has come down massively in recent years, and there are year-round promotional catalogue campaigns that represent incredible value, such as two CDs for a tenner. This means that tracks on physical albums can often work out quite a bit cheaper than their digital counterparts”.

Not wanting to be left out, a spokesman for the BPI said: “Digital downloads have resurrected the single, and the competitive pricing and widespread availability of individual digital songs appeal to teenagers. While the CD remains the bedrock of music sales overall, a key challenge for the industry now is to upscale demand to the digital album”.

Obviously, it remains to be seen if CMX can save the album. Or if the album can be saved at all. There are plenty who would say that it can’t. It’s certainly true that the album originated because it was the most cost effective way to distribute music, and not because there’s any creative logic in releasing music in ten track chunks. Now that is no longer the case, it has to be asked, should it be saved?