Apple’s rumoured to have a new type of digital media in development dubbed project Cocktail. More than a music or video file, whispers across the web suggest it’ll be a sort of digital box set, including lyrics, images, movies and sounds. Forget the PDF bonus booklet, here’s what Apple needs to re-shape media downloads.
1. A new device to use it
Apple’s a hardware company first and foremost. It’d make sense for the iPod touch and iPhone to enjoy an interactive album, but the smart money is on a Mac tablet designed to show off HD video, pictures and sing-along functions on a gorgeous multi-touch 10 inch screen.
2. Support from labels
Apple could be in for a fight here. The major record labels are working on their own digital album format, expected to be much the same as Apple’s project Cocktail, combining music, pictures, video and lyrics. With two competing formats there’s the potential for confusion, especially when the content owners can decide how they deliver it, but Apple can decide whether it’ll be viewable at the other end.
3. Bonus content, and plenty of it
There are loads of reasons to buy a special edition album or DVD. Mostly it’s the extra content, so Apple needs to make sure its Cocktail product is brimming with exclusive bonuses that simply aren’t available anywhere else, or as single downloads.
4. A tangible element
The problem with downloads is they’ve chipped away at our materialistic tendencies. When you’re browsing through items on a list in iTunes, there’s no metallic box or holographic sleeve to catch your eye. There’s none of what marketing types like to call “cut-through”. Wouldn’t it be nice to see concert tickets or some sort of physical object posted to the customer too?
5. Accessibility everywhere
If Apple wants to foist a new format on the world, it’d better let other manufacturers play with it too. Locking down the Cocktail media bundle and making it work exclusively on Apple kit would be akin to re-introducing DRM, and back Apple, not to mention anyone buying their goods this way, into a tricky corner. Trouble is, might it also mean opening up iTunes to non-Apple devices? That could be a bridge too far for Cupertino.
