Let’s be honest here: hands-up of you’ve ever bothered to leaf through the iTunes CD artwork bundled with any albums you scoop from the music service. Anybody? No? Listen up then: Word on the digital grapevine is that Apple’s cooking up a deal with the major record labels to provide a whole new CD sleeve that’s interactive. But will it thrive, or is it just another BD-Live?
According to the Financial Times, Apple’s new project aimed at boosting album sales on iTunes, codenamed Cocktail, will offer up “interactive booklets” and sleeve notes to get people clicking when they’re listening. All the big four record labels, EMI, Sony, Warner and Universal, are reportedly in on this iTunes project, so you can expect the new features stuffed inside downloads from any major artist right now, from video clips to lyrics that link to the song directly in iTunes.
Whatever Apple’s planning for iTunes, it’s got the approval of the industry, but we’re a little bit skeptical: it’s not like the interactive services on Blu-ray’s BD-Live are bringing much buzz, no matter how much Sony and Universal try to kickstart it. But one executive in the know promises the interactive iTunes packages will be much more than “just a bunch of PDFs”, so we’re hoping to be pleasantly surprised come the looming Apple iPod + iTunes refresh in September.
Out TBC | £TBC | Apple (Via The Financial Times)
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