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You have to tip your hat to the people at Apple. They’re always seeking out new ways on how to get your money business. In the battle to ween the 23-40 age demographic off buying physical music for the album artwork, they’re teaming up with EMI, Sony Music, Warner Music and the Universal Music Group to start packing digital booklets and music videos with every album you download from iTunes.

The labels and Apple are working towards a September launch date for the project codenamed “Cocktail”, according to people familiar with the matter. Apple is looking to attract larger purchases by creating a new type of interactive album material, including photos, lyric sheets and liner notes that allow users to click through to items that they find most interesting. Consumers do purchase large amounts of digital music, but they are buying individual songs rather than higher-margin full albums.

Falling in line with the aforementioned demographic, I can attest that rise of the MP3 player has deviated the casual listener’s interest from experimenting deeper into a great deal of artists catalogs. But if they didn’t care enough to even sample the entire Asleep In The Bread Aisle to discover a “La Di Da,” what’s a couple of fancy pictures and producer names they’ve never heard of going to do for the cause?

And while we’re on the subject, what about space? Sure the 120 GB iPod sounds impossible to fill up, but tack on those extra JPEGs and music videos that you may or may not have asked for and watch the memory fade away faster than Zune users.

Living in an era where handwriting is becoming extinct, it’s inevitable that the CD will join its cousins the record, 8 track and cassette in musical storage heaven, but the allure of some digital doo-doo probably isn’t enough to get those cavemen out of Best Buy.

Apple Joining Up With Record Labels To Create A Better Experience [StreetInsider]