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Apple Music has teamed up with Assouline, a book publisher based in Paris and London, to sell a $450 book that commemorates Apple Music’s 100 Best Albums of all time. If you haven’t heard of Assouline before, it’s known for its high-end books and other items:
Today, through its exceptionally crafted books, home fragrances, and objets d’art, Assouline invites the intellectual and curious into a world of beauty.
The book, which is available for pre-order is estimated to ship on November 25, 2024, and as the listing says, it’s:
A celebration of Apple Music’s inaugural list of the greatest records ever made, Apple Music: 100 Best Albums is a lasting companion piece to the digital initiative, which launched on the streaming service in 2024. With a release limited to 1,500 copies, the books are housed in sleek, transparent acrylic slipcases, each individually etched with its edition number. Inside, readers will find the featured albums, selected by Apple Music’s team of experts alongside an exclusive group of artists including Maren Morris, Pharrell Williams, J Balvin, Charli XCX, Mark Hoppus, Honey Dijon, and Nia Archives, as well as songwriters, producers, and industry professionals. The list is a wholly editorial statement that does not fit any neatly defined criteria—and is fully independent of any streaming numbers. In effect, it’s a love letter to the records that have shaped the world music lovers live and listen in.
This isn’t Apple’s first book. Notably, the company created and sold a book celebrating its hardware design in 2016, which it sold in a small $199 format and a larger $299 format.
The book includes what looks to be the editorial content created for Apple Music’s 100 Best Albums list, along with artwork for each of the 100 albums that Apple Music included in its list. There’s also a forward by Apple Music’s Zane Lowe.
When Apple’s hardware design book was released, it was just as unexpected as this book. However, that book was sold by Apple and paid tribute to the company’s rich history of hardware innovation. A list of 100 albums picked by Apple Music’s editors and others lands a little differently. It doesn’t carry the same weight as decades of hardware design. At the same time though, as someone whose writing exists in an ephemeral format online, I understand the desire to collect it in a physical format. So, while this book isn’t for me, for fans of Apple Music’s album picks with the wherewithal, this looks like a beautifully designed eight-pound book.