Why the iPad Could Change the Music Industry

Tablets and Tunes: Will Apple's iPad Rock the Music World?

By now, you’ve probably heard all about the iPad, and seen the pictures of Steve Jobs displaying his new “tablet” in a manner undoubtedly familiar to the lateCharlton Heston. So far, reaction to the device has been mixed at best, with some people already lining up to take potshotsat Apple’s latest doohickey.

We still think it’s pretty neat, mostly because we’re curious about what it could mean for the music biz, which is still struggling to find an attractive (and profitable) alternative to physical product. Look, as long as whatever new gadget that comes along plays nice with independent and unaffiliated creators who want to join the digital party, we’re cool.

The iPad’s specs are certainly interesting: the touch screen (multitouch) is 9.7 inches in length (on a diagonal), and, because the body is only half-an-inch thick, it weighs a mere 1.5 pounds. In the weeks preceding today’s unveiling, Jobs was rumored to have said that the iPad represented “the most important thing he’s ever done,” and, as the proud papa dangled his newest creation in front of a packed house in San Francisco, some may have wondered… “um, why, exactly?”

The iPad will not actually arrive in stores until March, meaning, for the next six weeks or so, bloggers nationwide will sing its praises and tear it down as if on “shuffle.” None of this is likely to phase Apple, who seem eager to compete in new markets — the eBook reader biz among them. And, with the iPad’s “introductory price” of $499, it very well could give Amazon’s Kindle a run for its money.

Of course, we’re here to talk about music.

For those of you out there who miss the days of liner notes, producer credits and the good old fashioned “album experience,” there is reason to think — or at least reason to speculate — that the iPad will could indeed be something special for musicians and fans. Assuming that people do, in fact, want an digital facimile of old-fashioned 

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, then the iPad — with its ten-inch screen and lush graphics — might take the not-so-major thrill of buying a digital music file from iTunes to a whole new level. To push this entirely speculative argument one step further, the iPad could give musicians more incentive to produce albums (and not just singles), by bundling the files in an oh-so-groovy package that could also include links to an artists’ website, tour dates, videos and so on and so forth. Again, the relative awesomeness of all of this depends on whether Apple keeps its storefront accessible to all artists, or becomes another gatekeeper. Currently, it’s pretty easy for even an unsigned artist to get their stuff on iTunes, and we have no reason to believe that this will change.

Via: http://is.gd/7iACv

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