Saturday, July 14, 2007

iTunes + Disneyland

The music of Disneyland, and all the Disney parks for that matter, available on iTunes! Disneyland has a musical catalog that is recognized globally. There is a huge market for this, from the vacationer who wants to pick up the "Small World Theme," that is still stuck in his head a week later, to the die hard Disney fan that just wants those hard to find tracks to complete their collection.

The company has been really good about promoting the park music, the 6 disc "Musical History of Disneyland" in particular. Also itunes featured some previously unreleased albums from Walt Disney Records for their 50th Anniversary. Definitely steps in the right direction.

The ultimate still remains the "music on demand" feature that was in the park awhile ago where you could compile your own CD from a really wide selection of audio from the park. The great thing about it was that it ranged from the obvious songs to the most obscure background music or ride spiel. A deal with iTunes could top it all!
Why stop at music? I also think there is a market for Park related video. There is a ton of attraction related media that is no longer a part of the parks that is literally sitting on a shelf. Why not make some money off it and make your fans very happy in the process. I'm sure the Disney fans would pay $2.99 to get "Captian Eo" or the "America the Beautiful" circle vision film onto their iPod.

Ah... if only Disney had an "in" with Apple!

6 comments:

Unknown said...

I sort of love this idea.

Being the only person in the world that doesn't own an iPod, I have to do a little finagling to get iTunes songs onto my current MP3 player.

I do won the Haunted Mansion and Pirates cd's from the defunct music on demand system.

Maybe they will be released DRM-free so I can use them as well.

But let's hope!

Unknown said...

As one of the Disney audio fanatics in this world (I have virtually every track published from the music on demand systems from both coasts), I would love to see these on iTunes. However, the licensing becomes quite messy for park audio. It does not all fall under Walt Disney Records and can be from varied divisions of the Company or from outside firms too. This is a very complicated siuation that may never be totally solved.

Mr. Lincoln said...

Justin, That makes sense for likes of Star Tours and Indiana Jones, being that they are not a Disney franchise. But I was under the impression that the music that was created for the park specifically was free of any label or other division of the company, making it easy to sell? Is that not the case anymore? If so it's too bad that it is so tangled up that nothing can be done.

Unknown said...

Unfortunately, the case of licensing park music, or any music from within Disney is not a simple thing. On the surface it would sure seem that way or should be at least.

Back when the original CD's on demand (around 1998) I made contacts with several people who had worked on that system and licensing became a real hot issue, partly why some tracks were around for a very short time. I believe the Omnisphere track from Horizons met that fate.

If you have the CD set Disneyland: A Musical History, take a look at the liner notes and all of the licensing credits. It is amazing that Randy Thornton was able to pull off that collection.

Mr. Lincoln said...

Thanks for the info on that Justin, even though its kind of sad to hear.

Seems as if the Disney conglomerate is getting in its own way.

Anonymous said...

Sound of Magic has many songs from the park available for free download.

http://www.soundofmagic.com/