“On Wednesday — 9/9/09 — remastered versions of the Beatles catalogue will be released, giving listeners what the remaining members of “The Fab Four” say is the closest reproduction ever of how their music sounded in the studio,” Doug Gross reports for CNN.
MacDailyNews Take: Which is what we heard when they first released their stuff on CDs, too. And then again when they offered “remastered” CDs, too.
Gross reports, “The same day, the video game “The Beatles: Rock Band” is set to be released by Harmonix… And on top of that, there’s rampant speculation that a planned “music-themed” announcement by Apple Inc., also scheduled on 9/9/09, could involve the supergroup.”
Gross reports, “The Beatles are one of a handful of groups whose music has never been approved for sale by Apple’s iTunes, and the timing of the announcement has fueled speculation that could finally change — or even that specialized Beatles iPods, like the ones sold in 2004 loaded with U2’s music, could be in the works.”
MacDailyNews Take: Okay, back on August 18th we were one of the first to speculate on the 9/9/09 deal involving The Beatles, but after Apple sent out invites headlined with a lyric from The Rolling Stones (“It’s only rock and roll, but we like it“), we began to have serious doubts.
Gross continues, “Research shows that more than 40 years after their last public performance, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr’s music remains as interesting to young people now as it ever was. A Pew Research survey released last month showed that 81 percent of respondents between ages 16-29 said they liked The Beatles. Eleven percent said they dislike the band and only 4 percent said they have never heard of them.”
MacDailyNews Take: Which of course means that people already have The Beatles on their iPods and iPhones already. We ripped our Beatles CDs to iTunes eight (8!) years ago. It’d have to be something unimaginably amazing, probably on the order of involving multiple instances of reanimation, for us to buy stuff from The Beatles yet again, however “remastered” they may be.
Gross continues, “EMI, which will be releasing the remastered recordings, has been famously protective of The Beatles brand and music. Digital reproductions like MP3s have lower sound quality than albums or compact discs — one of the reasons they’ve been slow to embrace iTunes.”
MacDailyNews Take: Slow? Slow?! Sheesh. Glacial is more like it. Mountain ranges erode into plains faster. And iTunes Store doesn’t sell dinosaur MP3s, they sell its successor, the superior AAC, so MP3 specifically isn’t the problem, it’s the labels insistence on compression limits. EMI, don’t blame Apple, just allow iTunes Store to sell The Beatles in lossless. Problem solved.
Gross continues, “Walter Everett, professor and chairman of music theory at the University of Michigan, said that, even with all of the news expected Wednesday, the Beatles music will no doubt remain popular for decades to come — meaning more new wrinkles are almost certain. ‘There’s still more that can be done,’ he said. “‘Who knows where technology may be in another 10 years? We may have holographic images.'”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The Beatles! Remastered (yet again)! Now, with holograms!
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Rob” for the heads up.]
MDN…you’re too funny!
My vote is that this is not going to happen. I hope it does, but I’m not expecting it. I got an email from Borders the other day that mentioned the upcoming Beatles releases and it said ‘on cd only’. Now, that could obviously be a ploy by Borders to get people to come in and by from them, but still it’s curious…
“4 percent said they have never heard of them”
Please
Someone turn up the Volume so those kids can hear
a music exec’s ideal medium—hollowgrams
I want a ‘When I’m 64 GB’ iPod Touch.
“There will probably be another artist that comes along and captures the imagination,” Birch said. “But it will never be like The Beatles.
You may have been sold “remastered” CDs before, but the currently-available CD releases are, to say the least, unfortunate. Though it is possible that the 9/9/9 remasters will not provide much benefit, there is so much room for improvement that I find it unlikely. Those who have been burned before will presumably have the sense to wait a few days to find out, though.
Reunion Tour!!!!
If there is no news, we just make it up.
By the way, Snow Leopard ROCKS!!
What will it be?
A holographic image of the sheet music?
Holographic images don’t sound very good over iPod/iPhone buds.
The original Beatles CDs from the 80’s sounded like crap. Don’t think they were ever remastered, but I might be wrong. The Stones remasters from a couple years ago sound fantastic. The Beatles should sound even better.
Who cares. They’re irrelevant. Butthead Paul has held up releasing their music for years trying to get another nickel in royalties. It’s been 40 years since they last charted a song and what the dumba$$ doesn’t realize is that at this point nobody cares about them or their music.
That’s gotta be it — HoloTunes!
Not sheet music, but live images of the performers, floating above the touchscreen.
It’s gonna be cool!
Also, I think it’s sort of dumb to assume that the Stones lyric means anything at all — the date is much more significant, and it’s sort of obvious that there will be Beatles news at the event.
Noooooooooooooooooooooooo.
A hologram of Yoko
If the new versions have the sonic splendor of the Cirque du Soliel album, LOVE, I’ll buy a half dozen of them in a heartbeat. I don’t care if it isn’t authentic.
The people who claim that no one cares about their music are just being cranky. The Beatles, Gershwin, Beethoven and Mozart will be around for a while.
Beatles suck…who gives a rats ass about them.
If the Beatles’ catalog ends up on iTunes, it will have no effect on my purchases.
just my $0.02
And the old saying “How many times am I buying the White Album” will never be more apt. We can even count now:
1. Original Vinyl LP (several re-releases)
2. 8-Track
3. Compact Cassette
4. CD (several releases)
5. Digital Compact Cassette (failed Phillips format of 90s)
6. MiniDisc
7. SACD
There is no doubt that eventually, someone at EMI (or Apple Corp, or McCartney himself) will flick the switch and begin raking in money from those who with to “buy the white album all over again”. Not to mention 80% of those kids who said they liked the Beatles.
Movie idea.
Like inheriting a Title, a kid inherits the place in the Band.
Your great-great-great-great grand dad was named Mick, now you have to front the Stones. Think of the infighting and drama.
“Digital reproductions like MP3s have lower sound quality than albums or compact discs — one of the reasons they’ve been slow to embrace iTunes.”
I find the sound quality issues rather humorous. We bought the 45s the minute they were available and played them on pieces of shit record players with five pound tone-arms.
It didn’t matter to us that they were in mono, and snap-crackle-pop was the norm for the medium. We played those things until the needle wore through the opposite side, and loved every friggin’ second of it. And, even broadcasts over cruddy AM radio were awesome.
I highly doubt if anything will ever be able to compare to the phenomenon of the Beatles. I guess you just had to be there.
nothing like forward thinking to remaster an artist so you can hear every little nuance . . . on earbuds. What was the thought process here? Oh yeah, no-one is paying attention, so when WE rip it from cd – it’ll sound different, because we remastered it to the BLACK audiophile cds instead of the average silver ones. People can’t complain about any industry as long as they’re schmucks themselves. Here’s a plan, buy the used cd for 1/2 price, rip it at 192kbps, sync it to your ipod, and go on with your life. It’s that simple.
“Digital reproductions like MP3s have lower sound quality than albums or compact discs — one of the reasons they’ve been slow to embrace iTunes.”
Right. A band that recorded half their music without any regard to stereo imaging is now sooo concerned about the sound quality is 256kbps AAC.
In fact, I’m surprised The Beatles recorded anything at all — with 4-track studio recording and distribution on AM radio & 45’s.
Ouch, Sir Gill Bates.
You beat me to it.
Clearly no Beatles announcement. The Stones lyric is BECAUSE those rat bastards at EMI wouldn’t play nice.
Apple is saying, “Screw you.”