Thursday January 11, 2007

Album Cover Art is Not Dead Thanks to Apple

Since I was a wee lad I was always fascinated with album art. I would sift through my brothers’ records, listen to the music, read the liner, and appreciate the artwork of the whole package.

When cassettes came along the size or the art was significantly reduced, but the art was still part of the experience. Then compact discs arrived allowing a bigger format for the cover and back to the square format.

Things have significantly changed since those days. There is now a generation of kids who will never purchase music on a physical medium such as a compact disc. They download their music through the iTunes Music Store and other available services. Many parents give their children allowances to buy music legally to discourage illegal downloads

Up until yesterday I was worried about the fate of the album cover. I personally haven’t purchased a cd in well over 2 years. How will album art be relevent when we listen to our music on mp3 players and purchase the music in the form of digital downloads I asked myself? When Apple introduced the iPhone and Apple tv set top box I had a revelation.

Both devices rely heavily on iTunes software to download and sync content. iTunes introduced a unique user interface called Cover Flow that allows the user to flip through albums, movies, and t.v. shows by the content’s cover art. This is similar to flipping through albums on a modern jukebox.

Being a whore for visual appeal, Apple has built Cover flow right into the iPhone and Apple tv. The iPhone differs from older iPods since it has a much larger 3.5 in. crisp widescreen lcd. The Apple tv displays all visual content on your television which is a much bigger display platform.

Kudos to Apple for having the desire to create something great like Cover Flow and seamlessly integrate it into their future products. We may never hold the actual printed cover art of our music, movies, and television shows again, but we can now look at it on our phones, ipods, computer monitors, and tvs.