Encore Posted November 16, 2010 Share Posted November 16, 2010 It slipped out a bit early, but the Beatles complete back catalog is available through iTunes. The individual albums clock in at $12.99 (with the Past Masters and the White, Red and Blue albums are $19.99) while a boxset of the Beatles' entire work is available for $149. Individual tracks are $1.29 each. The boxset includes all 13 of the band's studio albums, Past Masters and an iTunes LP with mini-documentaries, photos, notes and more. The mini-documentaries were initially featured with last year's CD boxset and are also included on the individual albums. The band's mono collection does not appear to be available at this time. The iTunes page has a number of features, including ads, a highlight reel and the first-ever Beatles' concert on U.S. soil in 1964. Apple updated the iTunes Store's front page to officially announce the release shortly before 10 a.m. ET.This is the culmination of a long and sometimes bitter battle that has its roots in a 1978 lawsuit between Apple Corps and Apple Computer. After winning a lawsuit against Apple Corps in 2006, Apple began actively courting the surviving band members and their heirs. It was a long and winding road indeed as the Beatles spent the interim releasing both the remastered albums and Rock Band: The Beatles. As the years slipped by and iTunes continued to dominate the music industry, it became more of a "when" and not an "if" the Beatles were going to be on iTunes. Paul McCartney even starred in an iPod ad in 2007. The group's solo efforts have been available for a few years as well.So, why now? The Beatles are certainly no strangers to arriving late to the emerging technology game -- the group's arrival on CD didn't happen until 1987. As the Wall Street Journal pointed out, part of it had to do with the plethora of lawsuits between the two companies. Another is making sure both surviving Beatles -- McCartney and Ringo Starr -- along with the heirs to John Lennon's and George Harrison's estates (yes, we're talking Yoko here) had to be on the same page regarding the release. With the release of the remastered albums, it was just a matter of time before those tracks ended up somewhere. Steve Jobs lobbied hard to make sure it was iTunes and not Amazon. Apple's abolishment of DRM in the interim probably helped the negotiations.Is this the sort of huge, groundbreaking announcement that it could have been even a year or two years ago? No, the Beatles missed the yellow submarine on this one. Had the two Apple companies reached an agreement in 2006, it would have been worthy of a special media event complete with branded iPod. For that, you'll need to see if one of these sets are still available on Ebay. Regardless, for those of us holding out for the iTunes release -- myself included -- these albums are worth owning. You're getting the remastered CDs, which are a higher audio quality, at a price comparable to the actual physical CD release, which ranges around $15 for the individual albums and $259 for the boxset, though Amazon carries that for roughly $155 before dropping the price this morning to $129.99, most likely in response to Apple's announcement. So, download an album and revel in the fact that you can relax at the end of your hard day's night with the Beatles on iTunes. http://www.tuaw.com/2010/11/16/you-cant-buy-me-love-but-you-can-buy-the-beatles/?icid=maing|main5|11|link2|25692 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Havoc907 Posted November 16, 2010 Share Posted November 16, 2010 About time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cdlove Posted November 16, 2010 Share Posted November 16, 2010 Yep, just about to post this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bacardimayne Posted November 16, 2010 Share Posted November 16, 2010 Who authorized this? Didn't Michael Jackson own the songs before he died? Who does now? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dalsh327 Posted November 17, 2010 Share Posted November 17, 2010 Who authorized this? Didn't Michael Jackson own the songs before he died? Who does now?He didn't own the early recordings, or the later songs George Harrison wrote. He owned a percentage of the publishing, but it was slightly more than John and Paul owned. Michael Jackson kept using the catalog as collateral so he could continue to keep up his reckless spending. He put up 40 million dollars to buy the catalog, but I've always speculated Yoko Ono put some of that money up, as a "silent partner". This way if she wanted to get her way, she was able to use Michael as needed to override Paul. Pretty clever of her if this is true. As it stands, Sony/ATV, and not Michael Jackson's estate, partly owns the Beatles publishing.The Beatles business end is being handled by a former Sony employee, Jeff Jones, who used to run Legacy. Coincidence he came from the same company who has an interest in Beatle publishing? When Jackson bought it, they had 4,000 songs, then when he went into a partnership with Sony, became extremely wealthy. But the company today, Sony/ATV - SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND songs, worldwide. EMI owns the master tapes, but EMI's owned by Terra Firma, who has lost a lot of money. It's been in the news over the past year that EMI's been in trouble. There was talk about Abbey Road being sold off, and the company The Beatles own (Apple) are actually in a good position to own their master tapes. The two likely companies to buy EMI would be Universal and Sony. And as I mentioned, someone who worked with Sony now works for The Beatles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ITW 2012 Posted November 17, 2010 Share Posted November 17, 2010 Can't you already download this for free off the Torrent sites? Seems a bit late for this. I've already got the box set anyway. Fuck iTunes! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CheapJon Posted November 17, 2010 Share Posted November 17, 2010 "Thank you, iTunes! I’ve been very interested to hear these “Beatles” that everybody’s been talking about." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Len B'stard Posted November 17, 2010 Share Posted November 17, 2010 I don't see why all this shit is so important anyway. Anyone who wants the boys on their ipod can do so with no problem so.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stiff Competition Posted November 17, 2010 Share Posted November 17, 2010 Itunes Schmitunes. I already have my Beatles Stereo Box. Much nicer.same here...as well as the mono boxand John's new signature box. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Sabbath Posted November 17, 2010 Share Posted November 17, 2010 Big whoop.Buying songs off of iTunes and other things like it is lame. The physical copy is where it's at. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jumpin' Jack Flash Posted November 17, 2010 Share Posted November 17, 2010 Big whoop.Buying songs off of iTunes and other things like it is lame. The physical copy is where it's at. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeppelin Posted November 17, 2010 Share Posted November 17, 2010 Big whoop.Buying songs off of iTunes and other things like it is lame. The physical copy is where it's at.Tell that to people that have to shell out $30 for hard to find albums. I was able to purchase an EP on iTunes for $4 Canadian whereas in stores, it costs $19.99. For four fucking songs.So, yeah, it is a big whoop sometimes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dalsh327 Posted November 17, 2010 Share Posted November 17, 2010 The ink was prob. still wet when they made the announcement... usually they ramp up publicity for it. McCartney's playing the Apollo in Harlem for Sirius XM subscribers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Takeshi Posted November 17, 2010 Share Posted November 17, 2010 People still pay for music? Suckers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Sabbath Posted November 17, 2010 Share Posted November 17, 2010 Big whoop.Buying songs off of iTunes and other things like it is lame. The physical copy is where it's at.Tell that to people that have to shell out $30 for hard to find albums. I was able to purchase an EP on iTunes for $4 Canadian whereas in stores, it costs $19.99. For four fucking songs.So, yeah, it is a big whoop sometimes.eBay, record stores, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dalsh327 Posted November 18, 2010 Share Posted November 18, 2010 Now that they've made their money off the remastered box sets and now the downloads, they have the Yellow Submarine movie remake in the works and Blu-Ray releases. They kind of rush announced it, which isn't like The Beatles, they make everything they do a big event. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skulls Posted November 18, 2010 Share Posted November 18, 2010 :makes fart noise:iTunes sucks. Can you buy Beatles MP3s on Amazon? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Street_Of_Dreams Posted November 18, 2010 Share Posted November 18, 2010 People still pay for music? Suckers./Thread Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dalsh327 Posted November 20, 2010 Share Posted November 20, 2010 People still pay for music? Suckers./ThreadSo if you want ticket prices to go down stop stealing music. - Irving Azoff (Twitter) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
axl_on_drums Posted November 22, 2010 Share Posted November 22, 2010 No way was I paying another 100 bucks for that sexy Beatles Box on itunes...Glad I found a torrent.Sorry but I must have bought beatles albums 3 times over at this point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stiff Competition Posted November 22, 2010 Share Posted November 22, 2010 No way was I paying another 100 bucks for that sexy Beatles Box on itunes...Glad I found a torrent.Sorry but I must have bought beatles albums 3 times over at this point.It makes me laugh that they call it a box set on itunes. the whole itunes thing is really only for the "new generation" of music listeners because you can buy the remastered beatles albums for the same price or even cheaper in the stores and get amazing packaging as opposed to getting a "folder" of digital files. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoon87 Posted November 22, 2010 Share Posted November 22, 2010 (edited) People actually PAY for mp3's? Just buy the damn record and rip it. Edited November 22, 2010 by Spoon87 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jumpin' Jack Flash Posted November 22, 2010 Share Posted November 22, 2010 People actually PAY for mp3's? Just buy the damn record and rip it. People actually PAY for records? Just torrent the damn shit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoon87 Posted November 22, 2010 Share Posted November 22, 2010 People actually PAY for mp3's? Just buy the damn record and rip it. People actually PAY for records? Just torrent the damn shit Nah man, buying a record is way more special. Getting the record, tearing the plastic apart, putting in the CD or the Vinyl, flicking throught the booklet, enjoying the artwork... That's all part of the experience for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jumpin' Jack Flash Posted November 22, 2010 Share Posted November 22, 2010 People actually PAY for mp3's? Just buy the damn record and rip it. People actually PAY for records? Just torrent the damn shit Nah man, buying a record is way more special. Getting the record, tearing the plastic apart, putting in the CD or the Vinyl, flicking throught the booklet, enjoying the artwork... That's all part of the experience for me.Oh with that I totally agree. If I really dig a record, then I'll buy it...and plus vinyls make awesome decoration! A physical copy trumps a digital copy every day of the week. But I'm not going to purchase every album I want to hear Gotta love the 'net. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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