Apple said to be charging $10,000 for iTunes LP production, cutting out indie labels
By Donald Melanson 
posted October 9th 2009 4:07PM
posted October 9th 2009 4:07PM
Sure, it may be tough deciding whether to shell out the extra few bucks for a deluxe iTunes LP or not (okay, maybe not that tough), but it looks like that's nothing compared to what record labels are faced with. While Apple itself of course isn't saying anything official on the matter, Gizmodo spoke with the owner of one indie record label who got a bit of information after inquiring about the possibility of making some iTunes LPs himself. Apparently, not only is Apple not currently making iTunes LPs available to indie labels at all, but it's charging the major labels a hefty $10,000 production fee for each one, which no doubt also means they'll be confined to particularly big sellers unless something big changes.
[Via iLounge]
[Via iLounge]
It is more than just scans from what I read, its a fully interactive web page stored locally and compressed. Correct me if I'm wrong.
I downloaded one, it is a bit more than a webpage, it has a custom visualiser which is quite nice. All the video stuff is good too. I wouldn't pay more for one, but if it's there already then they are nice.
Makes my $99 developer fee for the app store seem reasonable.
It seems a lot of you people still live with their parents in the basement, and have no real concept of what the real world is about, and how much really cost to create and manufacture things.... sad...really sad....
How do you manufacturer a non tangible object ?
Apparently you've never seen a web site.
While I have no love for the record industry, I cannot help but see this as Apple delivering yet another crushing blow to musicians. The suits are getting richer at the expense of the actual creative people. If this keeps up, iTunes will be the death of music and all we will have left is T-Pain, Lady Gaga and Miley Cyrus.
From what I understand Apple is the only place where a label can make money. It may not be like 1999, but it is better than many of the options. $10K is not a lot in terms of development time I will say, but labels do not want to pay much. We developed a CMS system to support similar products within iPhone applications, and believe me, the record industry is not that interested at half the rate and as a full application.
There aren’t a lot of suits left. And, that is all you already have left.
Why, exactly, is Paramore within close proximity to epic bands like Muse and Alice in Chains in that image? I consider it an act of blasphemy to have some shitty emo crap to share the same stage with them.
because all the Twilighters love Paramore and will buy the album.
as for the death of 'real artists'. you do realize that you don't have to buy music via itunes. those 'real artists' can post their stuff on their own sites and give it away if they wish and itunes will load it and sync it to your pretty ipods just fine
Isn't Muse just a less shitty emo band?
Can't diss Alice in Chains, but you'd not call them premium really... would you, I doubt they would. A semi pisstake band of 80s glam rock/soft metal
not hating, just saying
emo? have you ever listened to anything by Muse, they are the opposite of emo
I was actually more upset that they were on the same page as dave matthews band
I'm actually listening to the new Alice in Chains album right now. It's good stuff.
And they're anything but a "semi pisstake band of 80s glam rock/soft metal." They're 90s grunge/metal, if anything.
Let's say you take the LP idea over to a no-name freelance graphic designer/developer. Guess what...they'll charge you by the hour. In order to perfect it, make it visually appealing, really allow the artist to portray themselves and reach millions and millions of iTunes users they know they could charge you for it. An we are talking about a no name developer. Interactive applications, customer covers and interfaces and hosting is all, I believe iTunes has every right to charge 10K!
Thankfully someone here gets it. I own a small design studio and get work from record labels and artist pretty frequently. Even when I undercut big studios, developing something similar (for the web) runs near 10k (or more if you throw in audio, video editing, animation, etc.). But unlike a website, iTunes LP allows provides you with a finished product that can be sold... I'm actually surprised they are only charging 10k, especially if they are catering to big name labels.
This IS NOT talking about manufacturing a real physical LP record, people. iTunes LP is just some pictures and other junk to go along with the digital album. It's just like a flash webpage. Apple just sticks some stuff into a template and says that'll be $10k. Does this make more sense now as to why the fee is seen as rediculous and the arbitrary indie label lockout even more so?
Get your head out of your ass. You know nothing about the format, so don't even talk about what Apple is charging. You can't afford it anyway if it was one-tenth the price. Everything Apple does or sells is way out of your price range. You're downloading everything for free, so why care what Apple does or doesn't charge. Nearly everything in this world cost money and nearly every human wants more money, so if you can charge more, the more successful you become.
If it wasn't Apple charging for the format, the record companies would be doing it and those are some of the greediest bastards alive. You think that when Amazon finally gets around to making their digital LPs it's going to be free for artists. F*ck no, dude. If you were hired to to throw the digital LP fomat together for some musician, you'd probably ask for twice as much as Apple and claim you were some f*cking digital format artist/technician/specialist. Probably demand free tickets to their concerts, too.
Can someone enlighten me and tell me how the LP thing is different than what the Zune Player visualizer does for every CD you have..for free?
You have to see the content to appreciate it. It's not just a visualizer. It's interviews with the artists, interactive web content, high quality images, original art, back-stories, etc. Whether you want this or not isn't the point. It isn't obligatory to buy. There's not too many yet but if its popular you can bet other stores will offer similar add-ons (and charge for them as appropriate).
@Jim: So basically it has interviews with the artists over the Zune offerings? (Zune HD displays artist images, original album art, back stories) Although I seem to remember something about those being offered with the Zune as well... not sure if that's true or not, just think I remember hearing about it. Still, doesn't seem to offer much that the Zune software doesn't do for free with all your music.
Each "LP" includes various types of add-on material. Some include additional songs, etc. But it is more than you get with a typical Zune track/album (I don't know how well the ZuneHD displays the content on a TV - is it hi-res - the LP stuff is?). Some people are prepared to pay for this. Whatever rocks their boat. My guess is that Microsoft will offer additional paid content for the same reasons as Apple if it gains popularity. There are only about 12 "LP's" currently available so it seems like an experiment to appease the labels.
Since Pearl Jam is not on any label at all, I guess they forked over the $10K themselves for "Backspacer"? Interesting. To me, anyway.
iTunes LP is basically a really crappy website. You can load thing stupid thing in safari. Anyone can reverse engineer it and produce their own, NOT via itunes but who would bother. This is Apple buying off hassle from the majors by giving them what they think they want, laughing all the way to the bank as Apple knows far better what the future holds than the dying industry. The major labels really lost their way, and they can't be saved now. Apple is simply giving them enough rope to hang themselves.
"...Apple not currently making iTunes LPs available to indie labels at all..."
I guess they may at some point.
The point is that they have their fanbase and kids hoodwinked like they are some small personal company instead of a media giant. Like they dig the little guy. Like they love to help you and want you to come over for hot cocoa....mmmmmm, cocoa.
They don't care about you they want your money and the indies know they will have to pay because Apple is the monster of music like MTV used to be.
no one has yet replied to my original question:
What is the average industry cost to produce an LP like iTunes is doing?
That is: cost of graphic designers, photography, video making/editing, coding, and the rest of material needed to produce an LP. Without that piece of information it is very difficult have perspective.
@I_Love_Microsoft
Well beyond 10k if you include all the services you mentioned (video editing alone, jumps the price way up). I own a small design studio and do work for label's and artist all the time. We undercut a lot of big studios and still charge prices near or above 10k, but unlike a website, they are creating a product that can be resold on their iTunes Store. These people commenting dont know what they are talking about...
@ Charles
Ah that's what I thought. And these 'tards here are running their mouths off like they know what they're talking about.
Oh deary, I guess I'll keep ripping all my CDs in V0 with Lame instead of using iTunes...
I much prefer LAME Encoded VBR New 2 files or better. I'm still hoping one day iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody, or other legal online sellers will sell FLAC files I can convert to anything I please.
As for the $10,000 fee, I'm sure the coding isn't easy and the LPs so far have gotten quite significant advertising on the store space. Maybe if album makers see how successful this is, they might start including more bonus features on the CD instead of selling them on iTunes.
Is $10K really that much when we consider the amount of traffic / purchases the iTunes store gets? $10K for a "premier" product in the world's most popular music store doesn't seem like a ripoff.
And yea I agree that the whole concept in general is somewhat silly, but just sayin'
$5-$10K is about what the average DVD extra costs to produce, PLUS the costs of the actual video production. Are YOU going to give Universal Records a break when YOU do work for them? Cuz they're such nice guys? Hell no.
Making a record costs money. Making videos costs money. Apple's just charging the going rate for tuff like this. I assume they can back up their charge with a list of what they actually do for that money, and eventually they will release some software so labels can do it themselves...just like they have a non-public app to encode CDs and upload to the iTunes store.
hmm.. a one time 10K charge for what amounts to a rich-media microsite isn't cheap, but it's not totally out of bounds frankly. Considering what record labels budget for marketing their albums it's a blip on the radar.
Also consider what a typical marketing agency or design firm would charge for the equivalent service and i don't think that it would be that far off. I've seen bids for artist websites go for well over 50K, and there really isn't much more to them than what apple has produced with the virtual "LP".
One solution might be for apple to license the LP publishing software out to authorized vendors and allow a bit of a marketplace to take shape rather than publish it all in-house.. but I'm assuming they want the quality level high and consistent.
I, frankly, don't understand why apple would limit this LP service to major record labels.. that makes no sense.. it should be offered to everyone and offered at what the market will bear. Musicians of all types would need to weigh the costs of having this produced, just as they already need to weight the costs of purchasing equipment, marketing themselves and producing their own work.
Wonder if MS is any better with the Zune marketplace...since I haven't used that HORRIBLE program called iTunes in years
I hate to say I told you so, but I wrote this back in August...
http://blog.albumartexchange.com/2009/08/apple-cocktail-vs-cmx-either-way-indie-artists-lose.html
The common goal is supposed to be the resurrection of the album, which has long been the staple of the recording industry. With online customers choosing to download individual tracks rather than entire albums, it is believed that special features that come only with an album will help boost sales.
One thing that most of the news articles about these new formats seem to overlook is how they will impact recording artists. The digital music format was not developed by the record industry. The MP3 was something that was forced upon them. In addition, the technology that is used to produce an MP3 is not proprietary to the recording industry.
This means that independent recording artists and small record labels can easily produce their own product and distribute it for sale through online stores. This will not be the case with Apple’s Cocktail and CMX. These formats will be owned by the record industry and artists who wish to use them to promote their albums will undoubtedly have to make deals with the major labels.
If these formats end up being something that consumers like (and that’s probably not likely), it will be a step back for independent recording artists and small labels. They will almost certainly be locked out of the game by the big boys.
huh...a huge discussion..
i am a software developer. iTunes LP is a very easy format. I am build one very quickly with my video clips, music, lyrics and some pics. so i got a question. if i write a software to help people to make iTunes LP with their own files, will you like it?
@(Unverified)
i would love it
how is it going to work though?
I have no idea what an iTunes Album is, but $10K doesn't really buy you much in the professional design and advertising business.
It sounds pretty cheap to me.
The added bonus is that the fee would keep some of the trash out.
Read a short Q&A with Brian McKinney @
http://www.aemmp.org/site/2009/10/12/itunes-lp-vs-chocolate-lab-records-q-a-with-brian-mckinney/