iWant iTunes iEphemera

Over at the (non-official ;-) Apple Blog, Nick wants to know will the iTunes store ever make CD cover art & booklets available with the music? For you call-to-action types, there's an online petition asking Apple to do this. I agree that it's a good idea, so let's take it a tiny step further.

First, let's not limit this to what we are used to in the CD form factor. I mean seriously, are people really downloading and burning intact albums onto CDs and putting them in jewel cases? Hello, amazon? Okay fine, CD-sized booklets as an option, whatever. In that case, CD-shaped disk art as well. But also, liner notes for custom mixes, posters, band interviews, groupie stories, seekrit fan club materials, pop-up origami toys, cut-out paper birthday crowns (hey Apple, ask your buddies at HP to figure the printed stuff out for you). Screen savers, wallpaper, desktop themes, custom iTunes visualizations. Links to fansites, blogs, boards, fakesters, tour/presales calendars, flickr tags. A nice fat RSS feed to keep the whole mess in view every day. Life, the universe, everything!

Yep, I've gone overboard. Bad craziness. But listen, there's a whole lot of ephemeral material that surrounds the core bits of a song, that fuels the fire of music enthusiasts, and iTunes only scratches the surface. iHope we'll see more from iTMS in the near iFuture.

[found via Steve Rubel]

Posted by Gene at December 8, 2004 02:02 PM | TrackBack