The Beatles are on iTunes. The Beatles are on iTunes. The Beatles. Are. On iTunes.
And?
In typical Apple/music press fashion, the Internet is hugging itself over the notion that all of the remastered albums in The Beatles' catalogue - the U.K. studio albums, the U.S. version of Magical Mystery Tour, the Past Masters compilation and the Red and Blue albums - are now available for digital download. Much of the coverage is laughably hyperbolic, considering there's not much more to say other than what the first sentence of this post said three times. Fox News' Web site labeled The Fab Four as "Manchester's favorite mopheads" (wait, what?) while others are sharing via Twitter what their first Beatles song purchase is going to be or already was.
Allow me to throw some cold water on the celebration. Do you know what my first Beatles purchase on iTunes is going to be? Nothing. Last year, when EMI remastered and reissued all of the band's albums - in stereo and mono - I bought them all. Of course I did. Of course you probably did. Of course anyone who had a heightened sense of what The Beatles meant for popular culture did. Why in heaven's name will being able to purchase compressed downloadable versions of these songs be a game changer - particularly to the legions of writers and fans who urged everyone to go out and buy the CDs last year?
Look, having The Beatles' catalogue on iTunes is "good." For people who dare not forsake the convenience of sitting on their asses and clicking "Buy Song" for a few digital files at $1.29 each, it's "good." For the few smart kids who might use iTunes as a stepping stone to something more tangible in terms of collecting and listening to music, this is "good." But the remasters weren't niche titles. Target, Wal-Mart, Best Buy and the others stocked them on their shelves and endcaps, gave them space in the weekly ads, the whole nine yards. To put out the catalogue on iTunes as almost an afterthought, after a day of breathless hype, is disappointing on multiple levels.
And couldn't it have been "better"? Had the entire remastering happened with simultaneous physical and digital releases, that would have been better. (It also would have more accurately been "a day you'll never forget" - by design, I'm going to remember that the remastered CDs came out on 09/09/09 a lot easier than I'll remember that 11/16/10 was the day they came out on iTunes.) Had The Beatles' catalogue been announced in tandem with a cloud or subscription service, where users could discover The Beatles (and a whole lot more) for a premium monthly fee, that would have been "better."
Please remember this is not a debate about the worthiness of digital music or the future of an injured industry, but more of a critique of our culture of disposability as it pertains to music. By tomorrow this story will be old hat, because that's how news works nowadays. Didn't The Beatles deserve more than that? I think so. I think they - like us, the fans who continue to buy music even as it seems unfashionable to do so - deserve more days we'll never forget.
Your thoughts, as always, are welcome.
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Ten years in the making and probably three to five years too late. Although I always forget there are jillions of young people out there in their teens and early twenties who have never purchased physical media. And probably millions more not very bright people who don't know you can actually transfer your CDs into your iTunes. It will be interesting to see how sales go on this catalog.
According to news reports from Reuters, The Beatles' catalog on iTunes are already generating big sales. The "Abbey Road", "The White Album" & "Sgt. Pepper's" albums are climbing the iTunes charts and "Let It Be", "Blackbird" & "Here Comes The Sun" are the most popular Beatles singles downloads. And I agree with those who suggested that The Beatles kept their catalog off iTunes to make sure that last year's reissue of the remastered catalog on CD sold well.
Now there's just more question: when will they start selling The Beatles catalog in mono on iTunes?
You missed the point.
This is the last day when we'll have to be bombarded by rumors and speculation on blogs about when the Beatles will be available on iTunes.
A very memorable day indeed.
I disagree Matt. Had they announced digital downloads at the same time they released the remastered cds they wouldn't have maximized the number of cds they could have sold. There would have been a some percentage (probably under 20%)that would have opted for the DD. Now that they've made sure that everyone that wanted the remastered songs and were willing to buy the cds have shelled out the money they can go for the last holdouts, casual fans and Beatle-curious youngin's. They knew what they were doing,,,squeezing out every last dollar they could.
BTW - Got the Springsteen "Darkness" set today. Sweeeet! Very cool packaging and contents. You'd love it the most.
Mojo Yugen,
Right on! I will be glad to NOT to hear anymore about "when will the Beatles be avaialable for DD?".
Oops sorry Mike, forgot which website I was on... how embarassing for me.
Bill is on the money! These were deliberately held back to sell the CDs first. Three million last year, one million so far this year...trending downward...time for digital!
From http://www.fmqb.com/article.asp?id=2024627 ...
Not surprisingly, the news of The Beatles hitting the iTunes store yesterday brought a stampede of sales to the website. After the first 24 hours, Fab Four music is dominating the iTunes songs chart as well as the albums chart. As of 10:30 a.m. ET today, there were 17 Beatles songs in the iTunes Top 100. The highest was "Here Comes The Sun" at #19, followed by "Let It Be" at #23. The numbers continue to fluctuate as people continue to download the songs, but some of the other most popular tracks are "In My Life," "Blackbird," "Come Together" and "Hey Jude."
Meanwhile, Beatlemaniacs also pushed eight titles into the Top 20 on the iTunes albums chart. As of 10:30 a.m., Abbey Road was #7, The White Album was #8, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was #9, the all-encompassing Beatles Box Set was #11, the "Blue" Best Of set (The Beatles 1967-1970) was #12, the "Red" Best Of set (The Beatles 1962-1966) was #15, Rubber Soul occupied #18 and Revolver was #20.
Nine other Beatles titles fell just outside the Top 20 on the albums chart, including Magical Mystery Tour (#21), Let It Be (#22), Hard Day's Night (#25), Please Please Me (#27) and Help (#29).