You may not have even heard the news that a Norwegian broadcaster was offering up the entire Beatles catalog, previously unavailable in any digital form, as a downloadable podcast earlier this week. Well, it doesn’t really matter, because as of yesterday the plan is dead, and 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. 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.
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. Interestingly, Amazon just revealed that its top-selling MP3 album of the year was Nine Inch Nails’ Ghosts I-IV – an album that Trent Reznor also offered as a free, high-quality download through a Creative Commons license. This means a TON of people paid for an album, even though they didn’t have to, simply because they wanted to support the artist. But the only option for someone interested in obtaining the Beatles in digital form is an illegal version where nothing goes to the artists. In other words, even if a kid WANTED to pay for an Abbey Road download, there’s just no way.
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. What think you?
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It seems I keep saying this every few months or so on EW.com: I already own all the Beatles’ music (well, all that’s been commercially released). If/when the entire catalog gets remastered, I will be buying it on CD and then ripping it to iTunes. Since age may matter in this, I’m 34 – and there’s something about having the physical piece, something tangible, when getting a new album. Individual songs I will download and keep solely in that form, but when I get an album, I need the whole kit ‘n caboodle.
That being said: there has been a long history of legal wranglings when it comes to the Beatles themselves, their name, their music, etc. Of course this is going to be messy (a “long and winding road” shall we say), and I think it’s stupid that there’s been such a delay. Those of us who really want the Beatles’ music already have it anyway, though. If the kids want to hear what the fuss is all about, they can stream the music on Beatles-a-Rama or go to their local library.
THANK YOU WINONA!!!
As for age it doesnt matter, im 22 and I will not pay to download a cd. I go buy the album and then upload it to my ipod. If you are going to pay the $ for it my aswell get the actuall cd!
And i also take care of them so that in future maybe my kids or kids kids can have a CD collection cus i know they will become extinct very soon!!
I’m a 35 year old avid Beatle fan as well and I do own all of their CDs. But I have been waiting for their songs to be available for download as well because there are a few songs I don’t have that are only available on the 2 past masters CDs like Rain and This Boy. I want those few songs but don’t want want to buy those entire CDs just to get them. I’m also hoping for a Beatles Guitar Hero!
Seriously. Is it that hard to find a used copy of a Beatles CD and rip it to your computer if you want a digital copy? Most of their albums are available on Amazon Marketplace for less than what iTunes would charge anyway. I really don’t see what the big deal is. If they don’t want to put their catalog up for sale digitally, that’s their right. You don’t have to buy it or illegally download it in order to get it digitally.
Their refusal to get on board with digital downloads makes them irrelevant as far as I am concerned. My profession requires me to be very transient as I have, at least in the last few years, moved a great deal and I don’t have the time or the energy to to lug around boxes of cds. If the Beatles wish to remain in 1990 than by all means let them, but I won’t think about them or care if they don’t choose to get with modern means of distribution. Imagine a movie theatre that refused to show colour films. Fine, fair enough, but don’t expect sell out numbers vs. that crazy place down the street that is showing the talkies. Evolve or die. Ask Darwin…he knows a thing or two about it.
Buy the cd’s and make them mp3′s and there you go. That’s what I did, not that hard people
The Beatles irrelevant? That statement just won you the prize for ignoramus of the new Millenium.
I’m 28, and honestly the idea of buying a physical CD is ancient to me. I don’t own a single device that even plays CDs besides my computer. I listen to music in my car, on my home stereo (iPod connected), or my iphone. I ripped all my old CDs to my computer, backed them up on an external hard drive and threw out all the physical disks. What’s the point? I love having my entire music catelogue at my finger tips. As I was flipping the channels yesterday, I came across a re-run of American Idol where the people were singing Beatles songs. They mostly butchered them, but it reminded me of how many great songs the Beatles have, and how few of them I have on my iPod. The Beatles need to join the 21st century. I simply won’t buy CDs anymore through stores (online or real). I need it distributed digitally and placed on my iPod.
I’ve been dying to buy the Beatles electronically – namely because I love almost exactly half of each album and refuse to pay $14.99/album when I need only pay $7 for the half that I want. Please, please, please convert already!!
You can get all the beatles albums in digital format at http://www.mp3sale.ru.
This site has been declared legal and you pay just 10 euro cents per track.
You know what you can do? Put the CDs on to the computer like I did! Whoa. Now that’s a freaky idea.
I have to agree-anyone who would even say something as dumb as calling the greatest band in the history of recorded music “irrelevant” doesn’t know a damn thing about music.
I agree with the article completely.
This, on top of Ringo’s much-publicized shitty attitude towards fans has created a massive P.R. headache for the Beatles.
I’ve been a fan since childhood (I’m 40 now), but am getting sick of the sainthood attached to these very human beings. They helped shape modern music–yes–but things are changing yet again. Paul and the other powers that be need to realize they are jeopardizing their place in music history if they don’t keep up with technology.
More incredible corporate leadship…. the best and the brightest…
the Beatles are the Beatles, and they can and should be able to do whatever they want to do. Download the CDs and call it a day! They will NEVER be irrelevant, moron.