iTunes launches 45′s in preparation for Apple Tablet

The much rumored ‘Cocktail’ deal with Apple and the record labels has been the talk of the town for a few weeks now. iTunes have just launched ’45′ in the Music Store. 45′s hark back to the good old days of vinyl music, where you could buy a record that was more than a single, because it had two killer tracks on it instead of just the single you liked. This style of selling is well favored amongst the record industry, because it shift’s twice as many tracks, something that iTunes is keen to push more and more. iTunes has caused full album sales to drop off slightly, so this movement will be well received by the industry as a whole.

Also, this paves the way for users to buy ‘more’ than just the track you like. Apple’s ‘Cocktail’ promises to deliver way more than some album art or bunch of PDF’s attached to the audio file. Looks like Apple are getting it’s customer base used to buying ‘that little bit more’ with their music in preparation for the release of the Apple Tablet which allegedly will feature full support for Cocktail.