“Brian McKinney, who runs Chicago’s Chocolate Lab Records, claimed at the weekend that iTunes charges a $10,000 production fee for iTunes LP, a new digital format that pairs additional content such as lyrics and videos with album downloads,” MusicWeek reports.
“However, an iTunes spokesman says the fee is fiction,” MusicWeek reports. “‘There is no production fee charged by Apple,’ he says. ‘We’re releasing the open specs for iTunes LP soon, allowing both major and indie labels to create their own.'”
Full article here.
Go Apple. Go Apple.
Good news! That is the way it should be,
“Gadzooks, Mr. Hillary! This isn’t Everest – we’ve just scaled a mere molehill!”
Damn you Tenzing!!!
Sounds like “Chocolate Lab Records” got themselves lots of free publicity. They probably wrote the press release.
Apple to to Chocolate Lab Records: Change your name to “My Bitch Records.”
Interesting as I remember reading a story a few weeks ago about how Apple was so helpful to Fueled by Ramen in getting the Paramore – Brand New Eyes (Deluxe Version) iTunes-LP done by the release date and how please they were with the result, concept and the fact that Apple was doing the iTunes LPs at No cost and were make all the tools and code for the iTunes LP available to the labels and artists at no cost too.
Sounds like Choco Lab was just attempting to fudge pack some more profits out of it’s artists but, instead got fudge packed by the truth.
Chocolate Lab Records going out of business sale.
In the article, McKinney backtracks and claims the problem isn’t a fee, but that independently created iTunes LPs can’t be sold on iTunes. That’s also a load of horsesh*t. Apple says in their statement that the open specs for iTunes LP will be released soon, allowing anyone to create the format and sell it on the iTunes store.
So basically, McKinney is impatient and an idiot. Just the person you want behind your music career.
——RM
I also want to point out that Fueled by Ramen is an Indie Label and the Paramore Brand New Eyes is one of the first new releases (Sept. 29, 2009) to be released with an iTunes LP version, if it was not, the first new release to be released with an iTunes LP version on release day.
So, how exactly is Apple excluding Indie Labels as Choco claimed? If one of the first new releases, to have an iTunes LP Version is an Indie Label release then exclusion of indie labels would be in Brian McKinney Choco Hole of a brain.
It’s not just that someone can say something that is patently untrue, it’s that so many blogs and so called legitimate publications pick this up and either without checking facts or with gleeful malice, repeat a lie like this many times over. What ever happened to ethics in journalism or the sense of responsibility that should come with the right of freedom of the press? All lost in a single minded rush to gain readership/advertisers at the expense of their readers and their credibility.
I propose that a new convention be established that requires these pseudo journalists to publish their pages with a yellow background so we, the reader, can distinguish which is fiction and which might actually contain some substance..
It may well be that Apple charges $10,000 if you want Apple to create your iTunes LP for you, but that if you create it yourself, there’s not fee. That would make perfect sense.
Wow. Bullshit propegated in the Bloggosphere? Amazing!
Leo Laporte will never figure this one out…
Why would anyone buy an LP in the first place?
Isn’t music aural not visual? Hot babes writhing around onscreen do not help improve a lousy piece of music. Liner notes on a shitty band do not fix the band’s problems.
Buy the tunes you like, don’t buy the crappy LP fillers.
<i>quoting Big Als MBP: “Why would anyone buy an LP in the first place?
Isn’t music aural not visual? Hot babes writhing around onscreen do not help improve a lousy piece of music. Liner notes on a shitty band do not fix the band’s problems.
Buy the tunes you like, don’t buy the crappy LP fillers.”<i>
Hallelujah! I’m completely with this. With all the packaging going on, and the songs being restricted to complete album sales, even on eMusic.com, fer cryin’ out loud, the consumer is slowly… maybe not so slowly… being forced back into the old model – album sales. Why on earth Apple finally began capitulating to this outmode concept, I’ll never quite get. I also have been an eMusic consumer on a plan which gave me 65 downloads per month for 14.95. Now, I’m down to 37 downloads per month, all because supposedly they brought some “big names” into the fold (springsteen, u2, etc…) Well, I had iTunes for that stuff. EMusic was for all the hidden gems, and stuff I’d never have found, or bought for 99¢ – and most of my music purchase over the last three or four years have been from eMusic. Now, they’re also doing the variable pricing (some albums with 8 songs cost 14 download credits, with selected songs only available with complete album download) and the type of music I normally looked for there costs me considerably more than before, and the supposed additions of “mainstream” stars just doesn’t really feel like an addition, to be honest. I’m not that into mainstream, and I’m afraid that’s what’s taking over, even the furthest reaches of the music distribution business. Too damn bad.
PS: I am glad indie musicians can get complete album packaging done, and compete with the big boys, but is that what the fans of music really want? Do we want liner notes and lyrics and photos? I say, No! That’s all available online one place or another. I think most music buyers would really rather have more choices in the individual tracks we buy, like it used to be.
In the end the last refuge is probably places like iCompositions and virb.com for truly independent music – you just have to look a bit harder for the good stuff, but it’s there. And it’s untainted by the music industry.
damn… forgot my closing <i> tag… oh well..
chocolate records = gorilla marketing
the problem is, it’s supposed to be guerilla, instead
of ‘gorilla’ ya big dumb ape!!
Dude iTunes LP is great. There are some true artist out there that brings alot of different flavors to the table. The artwork and videos that come with the album of some of these artist can help the listener really feel and see where the musician was going with the song and where their state of mind was when they wrote that song. This would be great for great song writers like Dave Matthews or U2 who write incredible lyrics with great music. I know I got DMB LP and it was great cuz you saw how they make great music and and they felt about the songs they wrote. U2 I had to buy the deluxe to get all that and I wish it was on iTunes so I could carry it around cuz they were amazing in concert. So In all LPs be free for artist is great idea for all.
How quick we drink the Kool-Aid again. Remember Google Voice when we blamed AT&T;, then Apple said they didn’t say no, then Google “proved” it. Hopefully Apple isn’t fibbing on this also.
The LP format is an option. There are something like SIX MILLION songs on iTunes, most of them sold singly or as an album.
Personally, I will choose to buy some of the LP format because I do like the artwork or the lyrics or whatever some liner notes include.
Choice.
Good.
Greg
Who is Brian McKinney and why is saying those lies about Apple?
Is a he a Zune artist?
hi guys,
i’d love to clear the air right now (even though a mac-lovers forum is probably a bad place). i never back-tracked… my gripe has always been about apple not letting indies put out LPs. and i did say that i was only going on the information given to me, so if apple decided to roll out LPs for indies this week i’d kindly eat my words. so, i’ll take a bit of humble pie. no problem. but what i won’t do is lie down and take it if a CORPORATION is going to sit me and others like down on the bench and only let the big boys play. it’s my job as an american and i’m pretty proud for standing up to them – even if i never get a “single of the week” on itunes for the rest of my life.
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i also stated multiple times that i love apple, hate exclusion. i’ve been an ipod guy for almost ten years (since the 5lb… er… gig gen 1).
lastly, i’d like to point out that paramore is a platinum-selling group on a label distributed by atlantic records, who is owned by warner music group – a major label.
so, maybe i’m not erin brockovich, but at least i try.
cheers,
brian
choco lab fudge packer
Greg
Right on. LPs and singles are not mutually exclusive.
And in much the same way liner notes don’t improve the quality of lousy songs, writing more doesn’t make a poor argument good.
first off, don’t know the guy, don’t care about the guy. Personally I think he’s a whiner who didn’t listen to the keynote to hear Jobs say from day one that the labels would be making these themselves and who is also mad cause during A TEST RUN TO GET THE BUGS OUT only the Majors could play. but whatever, none of his artists are my taste so I wouldn’t be buying them regardless.
HOWEVER, it is possible that there was a misunderstanding prior in the info chain and yes Brian was told what he claims he was told. Folks misunderstand, even Apple Reps. It is possible someone said at some point “if we did this ourselves for everyone we’d have to charge $10k an album” and the person remembered it as “we do it and it’s $10k an album”. and so on.
I mean I called AppleCare and pretended like I had a busted Time Capsule to see what they would say and the guy basically told me it was 1 year no exceptions, which isn’t true. I actually read him the text off my computers warranty.
so lets stop with the “he just wanted some press” and ‘fudge packer’ digs okay.