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'Extraordinary' Soundtrack Will Be Apple-Exclusive

Posted by timothy on from the five-parsadigm dept.

Isbiten writes "Apple has just gotten the rights to the soundtrack of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. There will be no physical CD and it will only be available from the iTunes Music Store. Cnet has the story."

28 of 161 comments (clear)

  1. wow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is about as exciting as having dibs on the digitally remastered soundtrack to Highlander II.

    1. Re:wow by Blondie-Wan · · Score: 3, Insightful
      From what I've heard, I think it was actually Fox Music that got the ball rolling on this, not Apple. Fox wanted to do this as an experiment to test the viability of the strategy; that's why it's a niche-appeal album, an orchestral film score, instead of a mass-appeal thing like some pop release - they're not risking "losing" huge sales anyway, so they stand to gain more with the market research it provides.

      I'm sure Apple would dearly love to be able to exclusively offer an entire album by a major mainstream artist who sells in the millions, but the labels aren't ready for that yet.

  2. What if? by wowbagger · · Score: 4, Interesting

    What if I prefer to buy my music in a more lasting form?

    What if I prefer my music to be compressed with FLAC?

    What if I prefer to compress my music with MY parameters, to meet MY standards of audio fidelity?

    While I am all for Apple being able to distribute this electronicly, while I can accept Apple being given sole electronic distribution rights to this music, I don't like that this won't be available as a plain ol' CD.

    --
    www.eFax.com are spammers
    1. Re:What if? by Uart · · Score: 3, Funny

      Bah. Its just a soundtrack. As with all movie soundtracks you will be able to find all of its songs on the next "NOW Thats What I Call Music 37" compilation - which you can encode as you see fit.

      --

      Opinionated Law Student Strikes Again!
    2. Re:What if? by Elwood+P+Dowd · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What if...

      Then don't buy it.

      --

      There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
    3. Re:What if? by switcha · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Music is art.

      Just because you are used to one way of purchasing/enjoying art, doesn't make other methods 'unfair'.

      What if I prefer to buy my music in a more lasting form?
      So should sidewalk chalk artists not be allowed to make drawings?

      What if I prefer my music to be compressed with FLAC?
      So, should publishers not be allowed to print a book in whatever size they want, then distribute it on tape/cd/ebook/etc if they want?

      What if I prefer to compress my music with MY parameters, to meet MY standards of audio fidelity?
      So should a painter have to check with the buyer before he decides oil versus pastels, canvas versus illustration board, small versus mural, etc.?

      Sure you can hang it/display it/listen to it wherever you want once you get it home, but as to where you can buy art, it's not 'unfair' that you have to go to a gallery contracted to sell the piece. Art isn't public domain (despite p2p advocates). It's a product, and if you choose to enjoy it, you are stuck with how the artist/rep choose to let you partake in it.

      --
      You know what? ... A little club soda *did* get that out!
    4. Re:What if? by dhovis · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The way you talk, you'd think CDs were perfect reconstructions of the original music.

      What if I prefer to get the original master tapes?

      What if I prefer to create my own mixes of every song?

      What if I prefer surround sound?

      Every audio format out there has limitations, even CDs. For the price, you can't complain too much. Personally, I'd like to see Apple keep the singles price at 99 cents and drop the typical album price to $4.99. Given the info that leaked about Apple's meeting with the indie music labels, I think that is what Apple would like too. At that price point, it would be hard to complain too much about the audio quality unless you are really psycho.

      --

      --
      The internet is the greatest source of biased information in the history of mankind.

    5. Re:What if? by n.wegner · · Score: 5, Interesting

      >Art isn't public domain

      To paraphrase the US constitution:

      Culture is the public domain. Art is one form of culture, and culture contributes to art. The public has the right to freely enjoy its culture. The US constitution makes it very clear that copyright is only granted, for a limited time, to reward the public for creating and expanding the public domain, and the public's culture. The burden of proof lies with you.

      >Just because you are used to one way of
      >purchasing/enjoying art, doesn't make other
      >methods 'unfair'.

      In the general sense, yes. But when Apple only sells music in a worse (more lossely compressed than CD or Flac), or the Louvre only sells copies of the Mona Lisa on postcards, or Pendant publishing won't even print old liturature, then it's both unfair and unethical to deprive the public of enjoying its culture.

    6. Re:What if? by switcha · · Score: 3, Interesting
      The public has the right to freely enjoy its culture.
      And likewise, freely make their own art/culture contribution if they don't like what's offered. With all due respect, the way you phrased your initial comment could be twisted to include 'code poetry'. Yay, software piracy is for the 'greater good'.

      The US constitution makes it very clear that copyright is only granted, for a limited time, to reward the public for creating and expanding the public domain, and the public's culture.
      Very clear also, is copyright law that says you can do what you want with your work until the time you aren't protected by that law, and the 'common good' stuff kicks in. As far as I know, the soundtrack was just released and has a ways to go before it's in the class of American Standards.

      --
      You know what? ... A little club soda *did* get that out!
    7. Re:What if? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
      What if I prefer to buy my music in a more lasting form?
      Tough shit.

      What if I prefer my music to be compressed with FLAC?
      Tough shit.

      What if I prefer to compress my music with MY parameters, to meet MY standards of audio fidelity?
      Tough shit.

      I don't like that this won't be available as a plain ol' CD.
      Tough shit.

    8. Re:What if? by switcha · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Copyright was made to reward the public, and law provides protection from copyright infringement.
      What about rewarding innovation? Allowing inventors and creators to profit from their work before it goes to the people?

      Why did you bring up a straw man argument? What you said is similar to saying good will is communism.
      You hammered in the stake and brought the bale of hay. You insisted that copyright law is more for the public's good than protection of creation. I was trying to point out that software protection is mainly the protection of innovation.

      ... but the public still deserves to enjoy it if they can.
      What bothers me most about naysayers to Apple's deal is the assumption that it's somehow our right to have the maximum quality possible. I understand you don't think it's illegal, simply unfair. But the public still can enjoy it. If this were actually good music, I could play it and hear it and enjoy it. Considering the equipment the bulk of America listens to their music on, they don't care that much about super high fidelity either. They just want to enjoy it.

      --
      You know what? ... A little club soda *did* get that out!
    9. Re:What if? by Llywelyn · · Score: 4, Insightful

      >What if I prefer to buy my music in a more lasting form?

      Then purchase it from the iTMS, insert a blank CDR, and burn a copy from the playlist.

      --
      Integrate Keynote and LaTeX
    10. Re:What if? by derch · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I prefer that the government would give me a boat and pay me a million dollars to fish.

      We're both SOL.

      Can't you see the announcement is only for the free advertising? A month after they release the movie, Apple and Fox will quietly release the soundtrack on CD. Neither will sacrafice the chance to make extra money.

  3. This is a test from the labels... by gozar · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is a test from the labels on how safe their music is in the iTunes store. They will know that the only way this music will make it to the various P2P apps will be from some Apple user who buys the album, burns a CD, then rips it to MP3 to distribute.

    They can then use this to show that the protection in the iTunes store is not enough, and try to force Apple to change it before iTunes comes out for Windows.

    All IMHO... :-)

    --
    What, me worry?
    1. Re:This is a test from the labels... by mallie_mcg · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This is a test from the labels on how safe their music is in the iTunes store. They will know that the only way this music will make it to the various P2P apps will be from some Apple user who buys the album, burns a CD, then rips it to MP3 to distribute.

      I think you forget Europe, Australasia etal, where there is no iTunes store available, the media moguls would have only given iTunes the rights to US distribution, besides, most of the sound track will probably be available today for download of the p2p networks as well as purchase from Music stores. (you would probably have to buy several albums to get it all though).

      --


      Do the following really mean anything? SCSA MCP CCSA CCNA
      --I'm not actually after an answer!
  4. Testing the waters. by piznut · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You have to figure that a soundtrack is a pretty profitable item in terms of the cost to create. There is no real new work that needs to be done other than compiling existing music into a nice package.

    It is probably a fair generalization to say that soundtracks rarely sell in the same volumes as albums from pop artists. The loss of profit by reducing to such a niche market will probably be mostly offset by the higher profit margin associated with not actually having to create or mfg'r any media or packaging materials.

    If they (being the publisher) lose a little money on this, it won't be much and can probably be chalked up as the cost to test this particular market.

    Where am I going with this? Nowhere really...just some observations.

  5. Re:Encode quality? by switcha · · Score: 3, Insightful
    If I hand over the ten bucks for the album, how good of an encode do I get?

    My guess would be about $10 worth. The premise of online music distro is that not everyone is an audiophile, and some people just want to rock out at OK quality for a nice price.

    As someone already pointed out, you can have the master tapes of you are that 133t. It just might cost you a few million bucks.

    --
    You know what? ... A little club soda *did* get that out!
  6. Apple's got something up their sleeves. by sonicsft · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If you look at surrounding evidence that's popped up recently:
    -Job posting for Windows iTunes developer
    -Numerous bands are being scheduled to play Friday in apple stores, etc....
    -This album announcement

    I'd say Apple is about to release iTunes for windows. But I'm never very accurate on this guesses by it makes sense to me...

    -sonic

  7. But.. by n-baxley · · Score: 4, Funny

    What if one of those 5 people who want it doesn't have a mac?

    --

    THIS SPACE FOR RENT
    1. Re:But.. by questamor · · Score: 4, Funny

      They'll just have to find one of the 5 mac users that're still left, of course.

      (yeah, it's a troll, and I'm a mac user too :P)

  8. It's an original score...not a compilation. by caleugene · · Score: 3, Informative

    The majority of the tracks are original compositions by Trevor R. Jones performed by the London Symphony. Two tracks are more ethnic African tunes from Lady Blacksmith Mumbazo...this was all mentioned in the C|NET article.

    1. Re:It's an original score...not a compilation. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      That's not true at all. The music for the film is recorded in a completely different set of recording sessions than the music for the soundtrack album. The acoustics of the studio are different, and the placement of microphones is changed to record for a two-channel mix versus a six-channel mix.

      Score albums are entirely different recordings from the scores themselves.

  9. Re:Yeah, smart move... by usr122122121 · · Score: 4, Informative
    Interesting point. But since there's no KaZaa for the Mac...
    And, btw, why the hell isn't there?
    There is, it's called mlMac.
    --

    -braxton
  10. Re:Yeah, smart move... by WatertonMan · · Score: 3, Informative
    There are a few other clients for KaZaa.

    mlMac

    Neo

    However KaZaa has really gone down hill, mainly because of studio action. Most songs I try and download are "tweaked" with yelling in the middle or beeping or are of the wrong sound. It really isn't a good place to find music.

    I personally use Direct Connect. You can find a hub with the style of music you like and are more likely to find obscure music. (i.e. blues, jazz, etc.) Further it has a much better selection of TV shows if you are trying to find a show you missed that week. The Mac client is still so-so, but they fixed the memory leaks of the version from the fall.

  11. Re:What's That? by Dr+Reducto · · Score: 3, Interesting

    That's exactly what I meant. Now that Apple is publishing CD's itself (exclusive distribution), Apple records has a strong standing if it wants to file an injunction against Apple computers.

  12. Oh well, can't buy it. boohoo. by Muggins+the+Mad · · Score: 3, Interesting

    And for those of us where iTunes Store isn't supported.... (ie. the rest of the civilised world)

    It's only a bit of music, I'm not going to lose any sleep over not being able to buy this one, but exclusive deals in any form just suck.

    I tend to shy away from services that are full of "exclusive this, exclusive that" as they're just damaging my freedom of choice.

    - Colin

  13. Re:What about the Apple Records suit? by Farley+Mullet · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think that offtopic was being used as a proxy for the non-existant clueless moderation.

  14. I actually bought it... by mbbac · · Score: 4, Informative

    I bought the album last night from iTunes Music Store. It's a pretty good soundtrack. If the movie is anywhere near as good as its soundtrack, it'll be exceedingly better than my expectations.

    Anyway, $9.99 for 13 tracks of nicely composed orchestral work and two excellent world music songs is pretty good. I'm listening to it on my iPod as I type this.

    --

    mbbac