It’s great to see that while some musicians waste their time blaming the Internet for their declining album sales, others are actually embracing the latest technology and offering punters whole new ways to experience their music.
Bjork is one such artist. She has come up with the first “app album” in history. This app album is available both for iPhone and iPad, and it is basically made up of ten songs. Each of these songs has an app that goes with it, and which must be purchased individually. That is, you have to get the album itself (we could call it “the mother app”), and then buy the separate apps that go with each individual track.
The album/mother app is named Biophilia, and the first app (“Cosmogony”) is available for free. This is what you get when you launch the mother app:
In general, the apps themselves invite you to play games that relate to the theme of each song on the album (such is the case with “Crystalline”, the first “paid” app that has been released – video attached below), and also to create music of your own using your iPad (“Virus”, the second app that was issued). Which is quite fitting, really – Bjork composed “Biophilia” using one such tablet.
Personally, I think that Bjork must be praised for her inventiveness. And that’s regardless of how enjoyable one really finds this “app album” to be. If anything, she is showing us that the new and the old can blend and mix, without the detriment of either.
And you? What do you think of this new approach to music? Do you think other musicians will follow suit, and release their ver own “app albums”? Who is likelier to do it first?