November 16, 2007 7:07 AM PST
The Beatles on iTunes? Who cares?
Paul McCartney is now saying the Beatles catalog won't be available on iTunes until sometime next year. Yeah so? Maybe I don't get it, but didn't the "digitalization" of the Beatles catalog happen more than twenty years ago when they put out the CDs? So why are iTunes buyers a vast untapped Beatles market? The catalog is already online--if you have a hankering for Abbey Road buy the CD from Amazon and rip it right now.
I could give a hoot about the long-running legal feud between the Beatles' music label Apple Corps and Steve Jobs' Apple, and their endless haggling over the deal. Aren't Steve Jobs and Sir Paul rich enough already?
Steve Guttenberg is a frequent contributor to magazines and Web sites including Home Entertainment, Playback, and Ultimate AV. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
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anywhere. It's all been out on CD. Yes anyone who wants the Beatles or anything
else should buy the CDs for the sonic quality and packaging, but it seems so
many want to select individual songs. You can't buy them a la carte on CD. I
guess some people want to choose their singles.
ones on CD). And its all from source material.
The way to get people to buy again is to completely remaster the catalog using
modern techniques. I'm sure the people at Apple Corps are well aware of this.
already. The work was completed around the time "Love" was done. So do we get re-releases on CD when the iTunes become available?
with crap so you can put the one hit on the CD and then charge people $19.99
for it.
when the catalog is released on itunes, i will be right there. you can keep your ..what are those antiquated discs?? cds??
People are now mostly just singles buyers and if The Beatles do go digital
then buyers will not get to experience what it is like to listen to an album like
Sgt. Pepper's or Abbey Road in its entirety, track-by-track. For an avid
vinyl/CD fan like myself, this is upsetting.[/i]
This seems a little overdramatic.
After all, the web is a much more expansive resource for artist and album
information than any 5"x5" little booklet of paper could ever hope to be.
And lamenting the availability of singles on digital services as the end-of-
music-as-we-know-it is kind of silly. People who care about artists and
their art will continue to buy complete albums. Casual listeners get a more
affordable gateway to the artist. The only person that loses is the record
companies with their corrupt bundling strategies. Forcing people to buy
complete albums to preserve art is misguided.
huge Apple person myself (I had to love both Apples...). I think it's wrong to do this
because The Beatles were more than just some band on iTunes. I don't know what Sir
Paul thinks, but I don't like this. I have every single track ever on my iPods and
computers from CDs. Plus, I have a good collection of LPs as well.
I thought it used to be you could put one of their records on and appreciate their music
for what it was based on what they did and how they accomplished their goals. It's a real
treat to have old records to listen to. Bringing a CD in the car is almost as good too. But
to offer this on iTunes erases that. The Beatles were the true leaders of rock music, and
anyone who consider him or herself to be a music lover better appreciate and enjoy
them, for they were some of the handful of musicians who made real quality music.
It's true that we should all have their songs on our iPods anyway. In the words of some
car from that Disney movie, "Respect the classics man!". Yeah... I wouldn't forgive Apple
Corps for doing this, but if Apple threw in a new Beatle iPod, I'd get one just to add to
my collection.
-BMF
The original CD reissues sound pretty bad. Only "Beatles 1" and "Yellow Submarine Songtrack" are step above the others, and that's because the material was re-mixed for the respective occasions.
Along with iTunes, I hope EMI and The Beatles organization see fit to offer high-resolution downloads that are in fact comparable to the next wave of Beatles reissues.
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by revolution9
October 8, 2008 10:31 AM PDT
- It's OK to me if they are on itunes but I will buy all remastered CDs anyway. For the people who just want certain songs it will be great. I have a pretty good ear and I do know that the mp3 or other digital downloads don't come close to the excellent remastered CDs they are doing today. I look forward to shelling out me hard earned bucks for the Beatles again. I bought all of the LPs back in the 70s, most of the 8-tracks, all the cassettes and in 1987-88 all of the CDs. I'll do it again so Capitol/Apple just release the CDs already. Millions of fans want those remastered CDs now and millons more will take the downloads. Jim in So Cal.
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