The Beatles Are Now On iTunes
It was only 2 years ago that Paul McCartney was quoted as saying, “Beatles tracks are not coming to iTunes any time soon.” What a difference 24 months can make. The biggest-selling , most influential group in rock history is finally allowed to make their mark on the digital world.
On Tuesday November 16, 2010 iTunes unveiled the Fab Four’s music for legal downloading for the first time. Within hours of their availability, eight Beatles recordings were at one point among the top 25 albums sold on iTunes and that included the box set at $149.00.
But what was the story behing the hold-up? After all, iTunes was launched 10 years ago. Well, there are 3 distinct entities involved; Apple Computer who ownes iTunes, Apple Corps, who are The Beatles’ management company and EMI Group, The Beatles’ recording label. Because of a long-running trademark dispute with Apple, Apple Corps resisted selling Beatles music on iTunes.
From 1970-2007 Apple Corps’ chief executive was the forever Beatles’ road manager Neil Aspinall. Jeff Jones (formerly a vice president at Sony BMG where he specialized in repackaging classic albums) replaced Neil in April 2007 and the feud between the two Apples was resolved. Both companies aggreed on joint use of the “Apple” logo and name.
The next piece of the solution was Roger Faxon becoming CEO of EMI Group in June 2010. He was to be responsible for leading the operations of EMI’s music publishing and recorded music divisions. According to EMI representatives, Faxon met with Apple Corp CEO Jeff Jones in September, 2010 and “in a matter of hours” worked out the first steps of an agreement that allowed the iTunes deal to move forward. So you see, all it took was two new guys that both wanted new opportunites for Beatles music to reach music lovers, both new and old.
The downloads iTunes is selling are the stereo mixes of the entire Beatles catalog. The monaural mixes of 1963′s “Please Please Me” through 1968′s “White Album” were released last year as “The Beatles in Mono” 13 CD Box Set. But there does seem to be some contoversy over the sales of individual songs at $1.29 each. For Beatles “purists”, some songs were designed to be singles, but what about the “B” side of Abbey Road? The mix of songs like “Sun King”, “Mean Mister Mustard”, and “Polythene Pam”, these and other songs are only several seconds long. I’m sure The Beatles meant for these songs to be heard together. It might turn first time listeners off if they download one of these unique songs and expect it to be a typical song that you’d hear on the radio. And what about Revolution 9 off the White Album? What will newbies think about that song as a single download? We can always hope that curiosity would be peaked enough to eventually download the album in it’s entirety.
What about the naysayers that were of the opinion that “Almost anyone who has wanted to download Beatles songs has already done it via music pirate sites and software.” ? Well, the numbers are in: 2 million songs and 450,000 albums downloaded in the first week! Of course that number will fall off, but you have to admit, those are impressive numbers for a band that quit making music 40 years ago! If you are a true Beatles fan already, you’re not suprised by these numbers. You just get what The Beatles are, and their never ending influence on our world in so many ways.
To see what all the hubbub is about, click one of these links:
UNITED STATES
The Beatles. The band that changed everything, now on iTunes!
UNITED KINGDOM
iTunes GB