Full FeedInside the iTunes LP
After killing the album with the a la carte design of iTunes, Apple has decided to resuscitate it with the iTunes LP: users pay for an entire album, and get a boatload of extras: liner notes, videos, visualizers, and whatever extras the labels (and artists themselves) decide to include. But how does an iTunes LP work? Web developer Jay Robinson decided to find out.
Built on Apple’s Webkit technology, the iTunes LP runs full screen on your computer (in fact, it can be larger than screen: Robinson was annoyed by the scrollbars that were added to his 13” laptop screen). The second surprise is more subtle: while it uses web technology and lots of animation, an iTunes LP uses no Flash technology:
The iTunes LP experience is accomplished with HTML 4.01, CSS and JS. The interface feels very Flash-like, but there is no trace of it. The CSS animations are elaborate and smooth. Font files are referenced with an @font-face declaration in the CSS but there seems to be little to no use. Most text, even long passages of lyrics, is represented visually with a PNG file. I wonder if they originally intended to use font replacement for all text, but changed their mind.
One more surprise: the size. Robinson notes that an iTunes LP can be “over 500 MB in size.” All this of course, depends on the extras included; Robinson analyzes two different albums: one from The Doors, and one from Jay-Z. Dig in to his analysis of how an iTunes album is put together, both by the artist and by Apple’s technology.
Read [Jay Robinson].
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It’s a shame that those with smaller resolutions don’t have the size reduced to fit the screen. That must reduce the pleasure of using an LP surely.
on September 14, 2009 at 02:01 AM - LINKEven had to enlarge my iTunes window to remove the scroll bars for the new Muse LP released today (LP section = 214MB- not too big). Very impressed though. It’s like a DVD menu and extras but for an album instead of a movie. There should be a cheaper option to buy the album without the LP, for those who aren’t so bothered about extras and need the space.
on September 14, 2009 at 02:11 AM - LINK