Last month, word leaked out that Apple was working on “Cocktail,” a bundle of “interactive liner notes, videos, lyrics, and other interactive content” designed to help increase the appeal of full albums, and possibly justify CD-like album prices. The idea: users today are accustomed to downloading or ripping albums as little more than individual songs, occasionally with PDF-format digital booklets, and lose out on the traditional experience of opening a CD, flipping through all the lyrics and liner notes, and enjoying bonuses the artists want to include; this would restore and enhance that content, apparently in a single wrapper… which would likely be playable only with Apple’s software and/or devices.
Rather than editorializing on the topic, we wanted to pose a question to you: do you care? Would you have any interest in buying full albums if they came loaded with these sorts of extras? Is price more important to you than extras when you consider buying full albums? Or has the concept of an album basically dead to you because of single sales?
