First Bjork, then Sting, Madonna and now Neil Diamond. We’re talking official music artist apps for Apple’s iPad, a device that’s been relatively under-served in this area compared to iPhone.
Neil Diamond HD was released on Apple’s App Store tonight as a £2.99 download for iPad, although a £1.99 version for iPhone is also available. Its developer is New York firm SchnApps, and unusually, it includes full tracks rather than just iTunes preview clips.
“Loaded with multimedia content including: more than 20 full-length Greatest Hits, over 1 hour of app-exclusive audio commentary by Neil about his music + career, dozens of never before seen photos, an entire digital library of concert tour books available for in-app purchase + much more,” promises its App Store listing.
Social media also figures highly, with Diamond’s Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Myspace (!) streams all plumbed in. It’s clear a lot of work has gone into the content too, from the exclusive biography penned by Rolling Stone writer David Wilde through to the use of in-app purchases for the digital concert-tour books.
The app looks like it may have been expensive to produce, mind – although hopefully not as expensive as Sting’s infamous $1m app – so will it prove lucrative on the App Store? Time will tell.
Interestingly, googling ‘SchnApps LLC’ brings up a LinkedIn page for its director of operations Micah Diamond. Neil has a son called Micah…
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