If we assume that next week’s Apple event will have something to do with The Beatles—and we have to assume that, otherwise this post has no value (not to say that it does, mind you)—then I have to ask: what’s the big deal? Obviously, being the first (and only?) online music store that has The Beatles will be something of a coup, for at least the first day. You can picture the articles and posts now: “Apple meets Apple: Beatles on iTunes,” “iTunes just won my $9.99: Beatles on iTunes,” etc.
But that publicity won’t last. And even if it does, who cares? It’s not as if it’s exceedingly difficult to rip a CD these days. (If I recall correctly, as soon as you insert a music CD into your computer, iTunes will ask if you want to import it into your Music Library.) And once the CD has been ripped, you can put it on your iPod and/or iPhone. The point is, if you want to listen to The Beatles on your iPod while you’re out and about, it’s already terribly easy to do so.
It also goes without saying that you can find The Beatles “elsewhere” online. In fact, you can find it in a quality that you’ll never find on iTunes. How much sense it makes to download a 24bit lossless rip, from the original vinyl, when you’ve got $20 earbuds, I don’t know. But it’s there if you want it.
So, if The Beatles on iTunes isn’t a big deal for you guys, people who know how to rip a CD, or who know how to use BitTorrent ;-), then who will give a damn? Who’s going to be interested in adding a couple of Beatles songs to their iTunes Library—suggesting, of course, that they’re competent enough to use iTunes—because now they can get them from the iTunes Store?
Now, keep in mind that I have no doubt people will buy The Beatles from iTunes like it’s their job (and that people will buy The Beatles Rock Band like it’s also their job), but I just don’t understand why.
I think it is a big deal.
As a Gen-X’r who loves Beatles music I have never purchased a single album.
I haven’t bought a physical CD in five years. So now I can, with one impulsive click, get the entire Beatles catalog.
It’s huge.
Me neither. I checked out every Beatles album from Revolver and on from the local library and ripped them to my PC years ago. Didn’t cost me one red cent.
Government-sponsored piracy!
At one time, I liked the Beatles, but now after 30+ years of hardcore deification by the most shallow, unelightened people on earth, I CAN’T FUCKING STAND THEM. It is very fitting that the Apple and Beatle fanboi Venn circles are damn near concentric.
Funny how at least us “shallow and unelightened” people who actually have good musical taste are put down by some moron who can’t even spell.
Hardcure deification? By whom? The Beatles have been the most honest band without ripping off fans with countless reissues, etc…. The man is a penis.
Hi Nicholas Deleon,
I am sorry to hear that you that you’re not one of the enlightened Beautiful People anymore and you can’t stand the worlds greatest music, well your loss my friend. I remember the words that a very wise man once spoke: “TO DISLIKE THE BEATLES IS LESS A MATTER OF OPINION AND MORE TO DO WITH A PERSONALITY DISORDER”, and I couldn’t agree more with that sentiment. Like I said already, it’s your loss. Oh, and it may be shallow to you but…. Peace and Love.
Joe Blinn
Gosh… you’re a grade-A idiot.
Hey, the zebra crossing has turned into a bar code! And if you decode it it says “I buried Paul”!
I don’t really understand it either… but I do know that a lot of people really rely on iTunes to buy all of their music so I have no doubt that The Beatles on iTunes will do very well.
Personally I prefer using Amazon pay downloads.
They are the greatest musician in the history of the planet!!
I thought it partly stemmed(no pun intended) from a trademark dispute between Apple Inc. and Apple Corp (that have the rights to the beatles stuff or something).
I don’t really know the details or history, but I think that’s kind of the big deal about it is, I mean apart from the beatles being so (arguably) iconic.
On 9.9.09 The Beatles will be released in mono, the original format they were released on in the 60s. Up until this point the CD releases have been in poorly remastered stereo. Often times the music was pushed to one channel and the vocals on the other. This type of split makes it almost nauseating and disorienting to listen to.
The only Beatles CD’s in stereo where you have the vocals in one channel with the music in the other are bootlegs of the first four releases. Official CD releases of these have been up until now been available only in mono. The stereo version of Rubber Soul originally had this problem as well, but George Martin slightly remixed this for the original 1987 CD release to move the vocals more toward the center.
This is not to say that the current CD releases aren’t poorly remastered. There is no comparison between the White Album CD and vinyl. The CD mastering for the White Album is bad. Hopefully this will be rectified next week.
Hey, Lancewattingley who are the greatest musicians of all time the Beatles or metallica. head banging does not qualify as music remember that!
The Beatles have managed to stay away from digital distribution long enough that they are now completely forgotten by former fans, and completely unknown by potential new ones. It’s too bad; I think if John were alive today he’d be releasing all his stuff under a Creative Commons license and spend all his time in a studio with Danger Mouse.
You don’t know why anyone would buy Beatles Rock Band? Are you serious? They are the biggest and most influential rock band of all time. Their music spans from ages young to old, I don’t know many artists who are able to do that…and especially from today’s era. I am 20 years old and The Beatles are probably my favorite band, it used to be Van Halen but their quality of work is nothing on the level that The Fab Four had. Sure there are more technically talented bands out there; most of those bands will not breach mainstream media (Dream Theater for one).
I do understand that a lot of my peers probably KNOW The Beatles but just by name, but that is because they grew up with MTV and other horrible connections to music and are just brainwashed to think that if its not Top 40 or Top 10 Countdown it sucks…but in reality The Beatles are better than anything running the air waves today…and this is not opinion, this is fact.
So to me asking “Why would anyone buy Beatles Rock Band” is like asking “why would anyone buy a plasma/lcd hd 1080P tv” or “why would someone want a filet mignon” or something generally stupid questioning why someone wants something of quality.
The excitement is not that they’re going to be on iTunes, it’s that they’re going to be remastered after 20 years. The current Beatles cds are poor reproductions of the original albums. It’s almost criminal that we’ve had to listen to those early transfers since 1988 or whenever. These new cds are supposed to sound better than the vinyl (we’ll see). I can’t speak for everyone, but as a huge Beatles fan and something of an audiophile, I’ve been waiting for this for a long time.
I’m not an audiophile or music snob; I just happen to like The Beatles. I have many of their albums on both vinyl (all that was available at the time) and on CD for convenience. I’ve ripped all the CDs and some of the records into iTunes. For me, the big thing about having The Beatles collection available via iTunes would be to pick up the occasional track or album that’s not already part of my collection without having to scour the world for legal copies.
The Beatles are arguably one of the best selling musical groups of all time, so having their catalog available on the store of the largest seller of downloadable music is the kind of synergy that makes business people say “ca-ching!”
Who cares!
Anyone who really wants the Beatles on their iPod already has them. This is for the droves of Beatles fans that can’t rip CDs using iTunes or control their bladder movements.
And another thing – isn’t the timing of this a bit peculiar now that Michael Jackson is dead. Didn’t he undercut Paul McCartney into buying ownership rights to the Beatles library?
The remastered Beatles CD’s are the culmination of four years of work at Abbey Road studios. Michael Jackson died just two months ago so I don’t think it is logical to make the connection between the two.
Not only that, These remasters were announced back in April, When MJ was alive and kicking…so to speak.
I don’t want them to be released on itunse.
I want people to pirate beatles music like crazy.
And serve as an example to media conglomerates everywhere on what happens when they don’t readily offer their product to be legally purchased over the internet.
Lol!
That comment was pure genius. ;D
i’m sorry but Nicholas Deleon is a tool. the main thing is that they are being REMASTERED as prev noted and finally available in digital distribution form.
i assume you prob think that the current music climate is a batch of great, creative and musically gifted artists too. saying that the beatles aren’t a big deal is like a mac fanboy saying win7 sucks. unreasonable and illogical.
thats my .02 for today
All interrsted parties ought to listen to this:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00mc0cc#synopsis
What’s ironic is that without digital downloads, the Beatles have remained what all music related multimedia events are benchmarked against. On the 9th of September it will happen again. I can only think of perhaps Google having such a ’stratospheric market cap’…Apple, Inc is great at this similar connection too. The Beatles just did really really good stuff period that everybody can continuously get into on some level.
The other thing that I might add is that the compressed sound on Ipods and the like are equivalent to the transister radio of the past. It is the convinience and pretty little pictures in your pocket that is attractive. This can only get better I presume…but it will be hard for companies to charge more for the upgrade. The sad thing is that other bands were not able to reap and sow what the Beatles have done to maximize their profit by resisting to comply to the homoginizing of the music industry. U2 will go down in history as starting the collapse by agreeing to the .99 rule for ligitimate substandard sound. The music industry is endangered; it will have to be rebuilt because new revenues for music will be in jeopordy without re-org and artist development. I guess it has to go throught this cycle. It’s happenning in the wine industry too. So these Beatles re-masters should be great to listen to and have.
The Beatles catalogue will appear on iTunes on Sept. 10 … one after 9-09
itunes is not just good for Mom and Dad who just barely grasp what a computer is. It’s also nice for “youngsters” who are too embarrassed to ask if music can be enjoyable and not a barrier to keep the scary world away.
Yeah, some zealots preach the Beatles too hard (Beatle Baptists) but I think the group and the music are open for all listeners.
I may not be able to control my bladder movements either, but I do know I will be happy when Paul gets his music back from Sony and Blanket
Name me a more popular band than the Beatles. Name me a band that has been more creative or innoative. Name me a band that has had a greater influence than the Beatles. It can’t be done. The Beatles are what the Beatles are – the greatest and most loved band in the history of music.
Really, it ’s ok to have absolutes, Don’t be worried. some things are very good and turn out to be universal or something to reach for as a standard. music is not politics or religion. If notes sound bad, you know it. It’s just that the Beatles played in alot of turfs and did pretty well in all they did. Others have tried to do the same and will continue to do it. So having pride in what you like is good. We’ve turned away from that in Music, settling for short cuts. We are in many ways like 1958, 1959 early sixties in our collective music trend mentality it seems. Short songs, teeny bopper hits as the main attention grabbers.
I have never bothered with itunes and the like. I have listened to the Beatles music on the original mono records, CD’s and now the re-mastered versions of certain tracks on ‘Yellow Submarine Songbook’(1999). The Truth is that ‘Something’ of the musical quality got lost on the CD format. Something I had’nt realised until i heard ‘Hey Bulldog’ and Eleanor Rigby’ on the Yellow Submarine Songbook. There is a depth to the Beatles music that needs to be appreciated. It does’nt mattered that some people don’t particularly like The Beatles. (I usually regard such people as being tone deaf anyway). The strength of this body of work needs to be re-examined. This is something that can now happen, with the release of their music in re-mastered form. I particularly cannot wait to hear the percussion variations on ‘Ticket to ride’.
I’m a huge fan of the Beatles. But to me, it’s most likely going to be the Rolling Stones post-1971 catalog. As of now, iTunes only has albums up to that year. Recently, the Stones have re-released all post-1971 material except “Exile On Main St.”, which is due sometime in the next year. So this could be it…hence the billboard phrase “It’s only rock and roll, but we like it.”
But, as many people are unaware, the billboard could be misleading. Who knows?! Maybe both Beatles and Stones will end up on iTunes. But, don’t hold your breath
The Rolling Stones entire catalog has been available on iTunes for a quite a long time already – including the very recent remastered versions of some titles that were released this year. I can’t see iTunes making such a big deal out of something they’ve already had available for awhile. If the big announcement is about the Beatles, though, it’s really strange they’d use a Stones catch phrase to promote it.
One could ask in the same vein, why buy any music on itunes at all? Or why buy anything that can be pirated?
Ethics, of course.
Enough of the whiny MTV-brainwashed, Top-40 crowd trashing the best band that ever walked the Earth. Once the Fab Four gets released on iTunes, look for Steve Jobs’ stock price to once again go through the roof, because they’ll need a new server for the massive amount of downloads that’ll occur. The Beatles will be #1, once again.
The one main point that seems to be smudged-over is the digital format. Audio-junkies, purists, collectors, hangers-on,… everyone seems in their own world as to what is perceived when listening. The vinyl-versus-digital argument rages on and will continue. Technology will forever alter the musical landscape of the artistic works of the past. “Lets remaster all of The Beatles tunes AND MAKE ‘EM SOUND THE WAY WE THINK THEY SHOULD!” The Beatles recorded all of their tunes over a period of about eight years (more or less) with a tech that was (compared to today) about as cutting-edge as Morse Code and telegraph wire. What was produced at the time was recorded on the finest equipment, and produced and engineered to sound the absolute best at that point. If Lennon and McCartney had a Digidesign desk, Pro Tools (or Logic Studio or any of hundreds of other software titles) their creative work would have obviously gone in a far different direction (and probably been buried by the hundreds of musical releases daily).
Odd irony: whilst finishing up my earlier post, the album “Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too” by the New Radicals came on lastfm.com, particularly the tune “Hope I Didn’t Just Give Away The Ending”. I quote; “…I burned my Beatles records ’cause she hated Number Nine…”
Apropos.
you dorks, it’s not about how easy it is to rip a Beatles CD or how much it costs to purchase on iTunes, it is about business and making money. It defies understanding that the Beatles are leaving this pot of gold on the table in refusing to allow their material to be purchased online digitally. It’s about expanding the market. And please don’t tell me the Beatles don’t care about money or business.
It’s a huge deal to me.
Well said NAM !
It is a big deal because the iTunes Store is the #1 music retailer in the country. If Wal-Mart did not sell Beatles music, it would be a big deal if they changed their policy: it would be a big deal if Apple changed their policy as well.
The Beatles aren’t that big of a deal. You wanna know who’s a big deal? MICHAEL JACKSON. The Beatles are no where close to him when it comes to musical talent:)
I like to pay for music, people worked hard to make it. So whether or not it’s available on iTunes I will buy it where ever I can…what’s the big deal?
WHO CARES u really are an idiot michael jackson was an idiot compared to the genious writing of Lennon/McCartney i bet you dont even know who the beatles are