Apple iTunes Store to finally land The Beatles in 2009?

“The cover of the October, 2008 issue of Mojo Magazine, now on newsstands, features an interview with Paul McCartney, and next to his picture it says, ‘My White Album Plus! The Beatles Remastered.’ The article reveals that Mojo was invited to a playback of ten White Album tracks, and their verdict is ‘Better even than we’d hoped,'” What Goes On reports.

“The Mojo article also says that all the Beatles albums, including Yellow Submarine, Magical Mystery Tour and the Past Masters albums, have been remastered, but not The Hollywood Bowl. Two albums, Rubber Soul and Revolver, will be available in three mixes, mono, original stereo and the 1987 stereo rebalances. No 5.1 mixes are planned for any of the albums,” What Goes On reports.

“According to Mojo, the expected release date for remastered Beatles albums is, off the record, sometime in 2009, and that Apple would rather get it right than try to cash in on Christmas sales,” What Goes On reports.

Full article here.

[Attribution: MacUser]

51 Comments

  1. Agreed, way too little way too late. Maybe they can sell us another boxed set of re-re-remastered Star Wars movies too.

    The Beatles (as a group) have been gone almost as long as the Studebaker.

    The Stude-who? You get the idea.

  2. @nekogami13:

    The availability of Beatles music at the iTunes Store will help to introduce the Beatles to a new generation to music lovers, many of whom do not own any Beatles CD’s and may know very little about the Beatles’ music. Seeing “Across the Universe” does not qualify as a proper introduction to one of the most gifted musical groups of all time.

  3. Everybody who enjoyed the Beetles is starting to die off. All to say, nobody cares what Apple Corps does with the Beetles because Apple Corps pulled a Butthead Astronomer (look it up) when they sued Apple Computer when the Steves names Apple Computer in honor of the Beetles and Apple Corp.

  4. The only benefit of having the Beatles catalog would be to expose the music to younger people and make some sales there.

    Those of us who were born before they broke up probably bought the CDs when they (finally) came out. That took forever, too.

    I certainly wouldn’t buy any Beatles songs from iTunes – I have them already.

  5. So many false starts, and now we hear of a 2009 release!? What’s the point of this? Yes, the music is brilliant, but won’t their (Apple’s and the Beetles’ estate) greed backfire to where people will avoid this en masse?

    Unless, perhaps if they come up with a pre-installed iPod with a yellow submarine motif. That may have a sort of retro coolness about it.

  6. My ten-year-old daughter had her birthday party a few weeks ago. The girls wanted to karaoke so they were thinking of groups and songs they could sing to. One of the girls insisted a play The Beatles for them because they were her favorite group.

    More people than you might imagine care about The Beatles.

  7. More important to get it right, listeners will notice how much better the new Beatles stuff sounds. Reminds me of something else from the 60s, the early James Bond movies. The restored versions of Thunderball and Goldfinger, for example, look better and sound much better than they ever did in the theater.

  8. @nekogami13

    to respond to your query about dragging it up –

    If they haven’t got anything to report, then they report on what they haven’t got!

    Seems to be the way jorunos work today!

    As for the Beatles on iTunes… Yaaaaaaaawwwwwnnnnnnnn…
    I have everything they have ever produced… why buy it again? And I have it on my iTunes.

    As for the youngens getting to be exposed to it – I am sure they have been already.

    Koo koo ka shooo

  9. I didn’t mean who cares about The Beatles in terms of their music (I love their music)… I meant who cares about them coming to iTunes at this point. It’s been rumored for years and it’s just a moot point this late in the game. Everybody who wants The Beatles on their iPod or in their iTunes collection already ripped it from a CD.

  10. The Beatles could have generated considerable excitement by validating legal paid downloads about 3 years ago…but at this point…who cares…the validation occurred without them…they lost the opportunity to be viewed as forward-thinking…kind of a shame, because I love their music.

  11. The Beatles are an anomaly in that their influence is so pervasive they don’t have to market to younger generations to sell their albums. My daughter and most of her friends are now into The Beatles at different levels but all of them became fans simply because of the all encompassing coolness of the Fab Four. They certainly didn’t see or hear them on MTV or anywhere else. That said, The Beatles on iTunes isn’t necessarily about sales but rather about image. And as far as remastering the albums, that will mostly appeal to music nerds (and I use that term with all due love and affection).

  12. The Beatles collection should be made available on iTunes whenever it is ready and irregardless of how some individuals feel. Their music is now considered ‘classic standard’ and needs to be accessible to all. Thus it is news whether or not you feel like buying it. Personally, I would purchase the collection (maybe even a loaded iPod) because I never bought in to the $38 CD debacle and miss listening to their music in a modern format.

  13. If you don’t like the Beatles, you are FOCKED.

    (Jeez, even 10 year olds like ’em)

    BTW, it’s “goo goo ga jube”.

    Asswipe.

    Here’s a really good version, though. By the Master.

  14. Yawn is right.

    I’m a fan of the Beatles thou no-where near what I once was.

    My take: This is basically Paul trying to re-fight or at least gun shy of getting screwed over on the publishing rights in the 60’s (originally) and the 80’s (by Michael Jackson).

    The other possibility is they are waiting (or were) for the divorce proceeding to be final from Heather.

    Beatles on iTunes 5 years ago, major coup, today? not so much

    To be honest I was more excited when Zeppelin finally made its way to iTunes.

  15. He’s a real nowhere Man,
    Sitting in his Nowhere Land,
    Making all his nowhere plans
    for nobody.

    Doesn’t have a point of view,
    Knows not where he’s going to,
    Isn’t he a bit like you and me?
    Nowhere Man, please listen,
    You don’t know what you’re missin’,
    Nowhere Man, the world is at your command.

    He’s as blind as he can be,
    Just sees what he wants to see,
    Nowhere Man can you see me at all?

  16. This is an excerpt from a WSJ story on 7/10/08:

    Bloomie’s Magical Mystery Tour

    Bloomingdale’s will be reviving the 1960s this holiday season with an assortment of apparel and accessories tied to the Beatles. The department-store chain signed a contract with Apple Corps., the London-based company that owns the Beatles music library, allowing it to sell exclusive Beatles-themed merchandise in its stores. The products — including scarves, T-shirts, sweatshirts and a limited-edition Beatles iPod loaded with every Beatles song ever recorded — will hit stores in mid-October. “There’s also such a ’60s music influence in fashion right now,” says Bloomingdale’s men’s fashion director Kevin Harter.

  17. @HeavyD

    Thanks for the link. I really like the music from ‘Lit’. Never heard of them before but am considering getting a couple of their albums now, not iTunes of course – until lossless becomes the prevalent format. Having the original CD to import future proofs me against audio codec advances. Not that I’m paranoid, I just like to buy my music once only.

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