Monday, November 15th 2010
News: The Beatles
Apple Announces Beatles Deal
[UPDATE: It's been confirmed: Apple has acquired rights to sell Beatles music on its online iTunes store.]
Apple made a cryptic big-tease announcement on its site Monday, promising “Tomorrow is just another day you’ll never forget” before prompting us to check back tomorrow for some exciting news. The internet practically tore itself apart with speculation throughout the day, with popular opinion leaning towards the announcement of a streaming music-subscription service, upstaging Spotify and beating them to the punch before they hit US markets.
Well, let’s not start deleting our iTunes libraries just yet. According to The Wall Street Journal, the big news is that iTunes will finally start carrying The Beatles’ catalogue.
Yep, that’s it.
The WSJ is citing “people familiar with the situation,” who report that Apple was recently in talks with representatives for The Beatles and EMI Group Ltd. It’s a believable detail, given how much attention has been paid to Apple’s lack of Beatles inclusion in its store archives, the result of a copyright conflict that’s brewed since 1978. But the questions remain, if the announcement is Beatles-related: Will there be a new product integration? Will the full catalogue be available, track by track? What exclusive releases can we expect?
Billboard is in agreement with the WSJ theory, and points out that “another day,” words that appear in Apple’s teaser message, is the name of a Paul McCartney song released on his solo record Ram, but written during the Beatles’ Let It Be sessions. Yeah, that’s a bit of a stretch, but we wouldn’t put it past Steve Jobs, who if this rumor is to be believed is the big announcement (and we sincerely hope it’s not), clearly has far too big a hard-on for the Fab Four.
Hardly a day we’ll “never forget.”
when the wall street journal cites “inside sources,” it’s a lot different than when nme does it.
Nice cryptic Beatles references by Jobs there. It’s also a reference to “Tomorrow Never Knows”.
No one is waiting for the Beatles catalog to be available on iTunes so they can listen to it.
“HOORAY, THE FILES I’VE HAD FOR TEN YEARS, BUT IN WORSE QUALITY AND WITH DRM!”
What he said. Also, a bit anticlimactic since the stereo remasters came out a year ago. But if it means Abbey Road bumps fucking Kesha off the Top 10 for a little while, I won’t complain.
itunes doesn’t have drm. get with it.
That tells you something about how much I loooooove purchasing at the iTunes Store.
I’ve bought two total iTunes tracks, both back when DRM was alive and kicking, and I knew that sheit. Ignince is ignince ‘cross dat bord.