Assouline
- Apple Music released a $450 coffee-table book of its top 100 albums.
- The book, limited to 1,500 copies, includes album analyses and facts.
- Apple partnered with Assouline, known for luxury books, to publish the collection.
Apple has turned its top-100-albums list into a coffee-table book, and it's selling a small batch for $450 each.
When Apple Music released its ranking of the best albums of all time in May, it sparked debate among music fans. On Monday, it announced that the highly discussed list would become a collector's item.
"Apple Music: 100 Best Albums" is available to preorder, and the book's description says the release is limited to 1,500 copies. Each entry in the 208-page book has some facts about the album and an analysis of its significance.
Apple Music's global creative director and cohead of artist relations, Zane Lowe, wrote the foreword.
"If this list sparks more debate among fans outside of Apple Music and gets people talking passionately about the music they love, then we've done what we set out to do," Lowe said in May.
Assouline
Apple partnered with Assouline, a New York-based publishing company. Assouline's bestsellers include coffee-table books on the tennis star Roger Federer, Barbie, and the fashion brand Chanel. (Its "Chanel: The Impossible Collection" costs more than $1,000.)
"Apple Music: 100 Best Albums" isn't the tech giant's first published book. In 2016, Apple came out with "Designed by Apple in California," which showed designs by its design exec Jony Ive.
The 300-page book cost $200 for the small size and $300 for the large until it was discontinued in 2019. It was criticized for its price; Business Insider's own reviewer decided against buying it.
Years after it was pulled from shelves, the design book is going for more than 10 times its original price in some cases on eBay. One seller had a new large book listed for $2,400 on Tuesday morning.
Neither Apple nor Assouline immediately responded to a request for comment from BI. Assouline's site says the estimated shipping date is in January.
It's unclear whether profits from the book would count toward revenue for Apple's services department. Sales in the department, which includes subscription-based services like Apple Music, have boomed in recent quarters.