“Paul McCartney describes the effort to finally offer a digital Beatles catalog as ‘stalled.’ This is getting ridiculous. The Beatles will never become irrelevant, but this refusal to join the 21st century isn’t doing the legacy any favors. Already, there are kids today who call the Beatles overrated, saying they ‘don’t get’ the hype, etc. Music, and the way people listen to it, has changed, for better or worse, and the iPod generation is more interested in the hot new single than an LP work of art like The White Album,” Mike Bruno writes for Entertainment Weekly.
“There’s nothing the Beatles or Apple Corp. (the company established to manage their catalog) can do about that, but it would definitely help keep the band’s music alive and well if the young music fans who live on iTunes were at least given access to Beatles tracks, should they decide they want to hear for themselves what all the fuss is about,” Bruno writes.
“But perhaps even more important, this ‘stall’ is just bad business. Shunning a distribution model that is growing for one that is dying (CDs) makes no sense, not to mention the fact that anyone savvy enough to use bittorrent can get the entire catalog for free anyway,” Bruno writes.
Bruno writes, “Enough is enough. I love and respect the Beatles and hope that future generations are exposed to their brilliance so the legacy lives forever. Hopefully, Apple and the Beatles themselves will realize their wrong-headed resistance to change is putting that in jeopardy.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Patty D.” for the heads up.]
A good article with a bit of misinformed junk at the end (unless he meant “Apple Corps.,” The Beatles’ corporation): Apple has been trying to get The Beatles to join iTunes Store for years. This lunacy is entirely the fault of The Beatles side of the equation.
It’s really stupid. We can’t reach an agreement… The whole thing is unfortunate because we love The Beatles. – Apple CEO Steve Jobs, September 2003
Wow, Most of your posts show how utterly ignorant most of you are and your lack of music knowledge.
Love the Monkees. Beatles? eh, they’re OK.
I couldn’t care less if the beatles ever get on itunes.
they suck.
If it’s trivia you’re after…
David Bowie changed his name from David Jones precisely b/c of the Davey Jones of Monkees fame.
MDN MW:british
Yea, really. Freaky.
I love all the people here who think the beatles are over rated. These are the same people who the death cab for cutie is great and revolutionary music.
The youth of America is stupid.
Truly.
We are fucked.
Or crap like Coldplay. Die.
Every day that passes, the Beatles fade from relavance. The longer they wait to join iTMS the less profit they will earn. And I’m surprisingly OK with that.
It’s true that nothing has changed in 40 years.
People are still blaming Yoko Ono for “screwing up the Beatles” based on no evidence whatsoever.
If it’s “Yoko’s fault,” why is her music on iTunes? Why is all the music she did with John Lennon on iTunes, and why is most of Lennon’s music on there as well?
I’m not saying she *isn’t* (possibly) the sticking point, just that we have no information one way or the other. Maybe people should find out if there is a shred of reason to blame Yoko, before they crucify her?
As Brau says, anyone who’s a fan of The Beatles would have already bought the CDs or tracks they wanted and ripped into iTunes. Why on earth would they want to pay for another download at lesser quality (256kbps vs Apple Lossless or even WAV)???
As such, I think whoever is holding against inclusion into iTunes probably thinks there’s no profit to be made, and thus no need to deviate from the status quo of receiving royalties from CDs sales.
CD sales can also be re-packaged ad infinitum as “The Ultimate Beatles collection”, the “Directors Cut Special Limited Edition with gold Cover Beatles Album”, etc and any hardcore fans would still buy it. You can’t really do that with iTunes.
Man, there is a lot of hate on this thread. Aldarion is posting racist crap, and people hate Yoko so much they feel obligated to post simply that? WTF?
Also, to all the Monkees fans spamming the list (or maybe you are just one person), …
The Beatles came first, and they inspired the Monkees not the other way around. The Monkees were a “fake” band like InSync created by an television executive after seeing the movie “Hard Days Night” by the Beatles. They lip-synced the majority of their songs and pretended to play the instruments. It was only after they got popular that the people in charge thought it wise to let them play for real in case anyone caught on.
I love the Monkees, but high art? No. Better than the Beatles? No. Excellent genius musicians? No.
They were a TV show about a fake band that got so popular they became “real.” Think “Velvateen Rabbit,” (if any of you dufusses know what that is even).
I like the song about the octopus.
I never got the beatles. The generation younger than me couldn’t care less about the beatles. The generation older than me that like the beatles already have the cd’s. The last 2 people without cd’s are already almost too senile to care. The beatles time has come and long since gone. Who keeps yammering for the bealtes on itunes?
Well I’m one of those people who missed the Beatles generation and I’ve never owned any of their albums and barely know any of their music. What I’ve heard, however, I really liked… but when I went to iTunes, the music wasn’t there. I even looked for their CDs at Best Buy once and couldn’t find any. So I gave up.
If Beatles were on iTunes I’d probably buy some tracks. If not, then I won’t. Simple as that. It seems to me they aren’t interested in selling to a new generation of fans and thus will die out and be forgotten.
… make me want to puke.
The young ones, with your “Beatles suck” and “who cares” crap; you’ve adopted – unwittingly or not – a completely revisionist perspective on late 20th century music and the role the Beales played in it. Hell, you don’t have to like them – that ain’t no crime – but to call them overrated or insignificant is pure ignorance in the extreme. You DESERVE all the Fall Out Boys, Coldplays, Beyonces and D Piddys you get.
And the old ones, with their insistent whining about Yoko Ono as the primary reason for the breakup AND digital release holdup, and probably the current economic crisis, too. Let’ see your EVIDENCE. Don’t have any, huh? Didn’t think so.Yoko was a brilliant artist with little appeal to the same plebians who didn’t like the Beatles “weird” stuff; you must think Lennon was an idiot for hooking up with her. Most of you pussies coudn’t handle a strong woman of her magnitude; but that’s ok, there are lots of simpering little girlie toys out there to help you feel more manly than nature intended.
I wonder how long it will be before someone here starts dissing Ringo’s drumming… what a bunch of pathetic losers.
This is one of the best discussions I’ve ever read on this site.
The comments were way more interesting than the article itself.
Congrats people!
(no matter what your opinion)
I just don’t care about the Beetles. I hate to be pretentious, and they were very influential, but a lot of better music was made by the people they influenced than by them.
I dont give a damn about the Beatles and neithr does anyone 45yrs and lower.
Lets face it, almost everyone who is old enough to like the beatles have all their music on cd anyway – hardly the audience into downloading music.
Besides if you want the Beatles music just install aquisition and get it off the net if your that desperate.
Ridiculous for the Beatles. Meaningless for iTunes.
Here Here !!
Every word you say is true — but, sadly,
it seems to be falling on the deaf ears of
those who don’t know any better.
It goes to show you that the ability to play an instrument (well) — and to carry a tune —
are talents which are no longer necessary in the production of what passes for music nowadays.
A tip of the hat to you
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“The Beatles will never become irrelevant”
Yes they have, and I wish them good riddance.
I am part of that generation, and as an old geezer I don’t miss them, hell I never bought CDs to replace the old 33s.
I did buy CDs for Led Zeppelin replacements but the four from from Liverpool – no thanks.
Hey we got ABBA on iTunes, who really needs more?
Beatles…..yeah who cares
Some great tunes back in 1964, then a couple of pretty good albums. LOTS of hype.
Lennon gets himself shot – not paying attention, living in limo-land, apartment full of fur coats. Working-class hero…NOT.
George dies – lifelong heavy smoker.
Whats left? Superficial Macartney and the insane Yoko.
Oh and Ringo, a recovering alcoholic.
Who was better back then?
Stones
Traffic
Cream
Hendrix
Nice
Juniors Eyes
Terry Reid
Zeppelin
Nick Drake
Fairport
Stone the Crows
Family
etc………..
The Beatles really are overrated. They were once billed as the band that saved Rock ‘n’ Roll. But from what? The music trend pre-Beatles was the rising popularity of Rock written by Black musicians… Oh, did I just blame a racist conspiracy on an Industry that once painted white men black to sing black songs and made Elvis popular because he was a white guy that sounded black and continues to suck up to now? Silly me…