back to article Apple readies iTunes for Beatles juice, says report

Apple is making an announcement about its iTunes music service later today, which has led to frenzied speculation about what fanbois can expect to hear from the Jobsian outfit. Chief among the rumours is that the company will finally be releasing the Beatles’ back catalogue via its iTunes store, which we are quite sure we …

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  1. Cunningly Linguistic
    FAIL

    An entitled title

    Talk about the non-event of the year! Sheesh. Those who like the Beatles will have already either bought the vinyl, then the tapes, then the CDs or they'll have downloaded them. I rather doubt the yoof of today, ie the only ones that actually use iTunes to buy music are going to be that interested in 45 year old music that doesn't involve bling, capping someone's ass or plaiting one's fingers.

    I can see why EMI capitulated though, they are in deep shit now that everyone is leaving the sinking ship. Ah karma, what a wonderful thing!

    1. ThomH

      Similarly relevant possible announcements

      Apple to buy a newspaper! And to set up a phone number you can call to get cinema listings! They're putting a 6502 coprocessor in every Mac! They're adding Snake as a built-in app to the iPhone! iWork is finally going to be able to open WordStar documents, with most formatting correct!

    2. stucs201
      Go

      I'm am interested despite having the CDs...

      ...but only for the same reasons as anything else - the ability to have *album* artwork stored once, rather than wastefully individually embedding it in every track of an album.

  2. The Fuzzy Wotnot
    Pint

    Why all the fuss, I just can't understand it either.

    I am not exactly young, hitting 40 very soon, but I don't get what the fuss is all about regarding the Liverpool lads and their back catalogue? Granted my tastes are a little extreme, ranging from William Orbit to Dimmu Borgir and so I appreciate most forms of music, but I simply don't get why this is such a big deal.

    IF you stand to gain financially from these deals, shares in Apple ( either the computer mob or the Beatles record company ) then fair enough, but for the the average punter who has most likely already ripped their CDs through iTunes, this seems odd.

    This is not a piss-take, I am serious and genuinely interested in what other people think.

    1. Code Monkey
      Troll

      Yup

      Overrated band (hi), meet overrated music store (hi).

    2. multipharious

      hit 40 already

      One question I do have: does the album art in iTunes download automatically when a new CD is ripped? Reason for asking was an iTunes user that was surprised by how complete my album art was in my collection.

      I am with you Fuzzy Wotnot. Wide music range. I purchase original CDs and ripped them up myself which was a long, long process. If the artwork was missing, I scanned the cover and dropped it in the folder, if the titles were incorrect or the contributing artists were wrong or missing, I updated it.

      How stinking lazy are people to think that one band hitting iTunes is like mana falling from the sky. Another proclamation from on high from Jobs and his acolytes? I don't use iTunes. I don't own any Apple products. I am perfectly happy without them.

      Oh God. Here comes the fanboi downvotes. Some of the non-Apple (linux and windows) folks out there at least help me get a par on this one!

  3. Bilgepipe

    The title is unimportant, but must contain letters and/or digits.

    A little too late, anyone who wants their songs will already have the recent remasters.

    -1 for the use of "fanboi", which is becoming really old now...

  4. Charlie Clark Silver badge

    What does Lord Sugar know about copyright?

    Laws do vary between jurisdictions but I thought that 70 years after the death of the composer was standard for music. Of course, that still leaves other rights which might be running out but then Disney got them recently extended for the early Mickey Mouse stuff, didn't it?

    Anyway The Beatles: YSB.

    1. Nick Ryan Silver badge

      Re: What does Lord Sugar know about copyright?

      Yes, copyright does vary globally and from market to market.

      However, check this: http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/protect/p07_music_copyright for an idea as to how it applies to music in the UK.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Apple announces...

    ... they are now going to be flogging dead horses!

    1. Shaun 1

      Nah

      Two of them are still alive

  6. Futumsh

    Maybe because

    EMI have realised that nobody gives a shit about the Beatles any more.

    1. Absent

      RE: Maybe because

      Or that EMI/Guy Hands are hemorrhaging money after that over-inflated buyout.

  7. envmod

    meh

    The Beatles are shit.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Halo

    This may or may not be a title.

    I certainly wish the most overhyped shit band ever would get their music on iTunes just so that these stories would stop coming up every 11.374 days.

    In all probability the announcment is service based, given they've been arsing around building planet sized data centers and pusing out new versions of iTunes. So, some cloud shite probably.

    Where's the 'this isn't really news and I'm falling asleep now' icon...

  9. Alpha Centauri
    FAIL

    Yawn

    I like the Beatles, I grew up in the 60s listening to their music, but really.

  10. jai

    re: why all the fuss?

    there's been an awful lot of people asking "why is this even news?" and "who's going to buy them when fans are likely to already own the entire catalogue on cd?"

    yet the fact remains, as mentioned in the article: "since when rumours have continuously circulated"

    every bloody year, there's a rumour that the Beatles catalog will be available on iTunes.

    so evidently, there's quite a few people to whom it does matter, otherwise this eternal rumour wouldn't continue to live

    personally, i'm hoping that it is the Beatles music coming to iTunes - at least that'll put an end to this blasted rumour once and for all

    1. chr0m4t1c

      Meh

      Turns out that it is the Beatles coming to iTunes.

      So it is "just another day" after all, despite what Apple want people to believe.

    2. Michael C

      By being a big deal...

      ...Apple gets to capitalize on a) free advertizing ,b) mounds of feedback and next product rumors (to steer said rumored product to have the features being asked for), c) ammo to throw at the studios ("hey, A-Holes, our customers want your shit!, license it already, c'mon lets get subscriptions rolling already , geez!"), and more.

  11. Scott K
    Alert

    2 pointless "big announcements" in 2 days

    2 pointless "big announcements" in 2 days

    First NASA yesterday with their black hole just nextdoor.

    Now Apple with Ancient has been britpop group "the beatles" .

    Nobody thinks that it's news do they really? I mean come on the beatles on Itunes pah

    !mark as I don't know nor care which little icon at the bottom is evil Jobs

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I guess your <25

      ....or running on methane?

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Grenade

    Still rocking

    Judging by the packed houses at the "Lennon" musical at the Liverpool Royal Court there is still a great deal of interest in the Fab Four. Pity Regtards are such a bunch of young fogeys ... back to X-Factor the lot of you :)

  13. hamsterjam
    Megaphone

    Ah, the joys of ignorance and self-loathing!

    It's a shame that tuppeny-ha'penny iconoclasm has no market value. Otherwise Fuckoff Island would be full of millionaires, instead of embittered, negative wage-slaves.

    Here's the thing. Any record you hear on the radio bears audible traces of three crucial musical forebears: The Beatles, James Brown and Kraftwerk.

    The Beatles are a musical and social phenomenon. De gustibus and all that, it remains that they changed music, the record business and British society.

    They also realigned the UK with respect to the rest of the world. If they had come from another country they would be viewed with pride and affection.

    However, pride and affection aren't cool, are they?

    It should also be noted that The Beatles incorporated Apple as an company not just as a record label but also as a technology company (although nothing came of it). So they could have strangled Apple at birth, but they didn't. IIRC the deal was that Apple Computer could use the name as long as they didn't do anything related to selling records.

    So the reason that the Beatles catalogue wasn't with iTunes is because the remaining Beatles (or their representatives) were under the impression that they had been grossly betrayed.

    That being so, the appearance of the Beatles music on iTunes should have coincided with Hell freezing over. So let's see whether it's real or not, shall we?

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Why bother

    Have Beatles fans, who are also apple types, not already ripped their own music for playing on their (closed) device?

    If I had one (and I would not), I would have found a way to play my fav Beatles tracks already.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Stop

      No

      Despite having*:

      - the original 60's vinyl

      - cassette

      - 8 track

      - Laserdisk**

      - CD

      - book

      - t-shirt

      - watch

      - fridge magnets

      - cats named after all the Beatles and some of their songs

      - laptop and mobile Beatles skins

      Some of us still haven't got the latest remastered titles

      *my wife has all these

      ** okay maybe not one of these

  15. TeeCee Gold badge
    Coat

    Bound to happen.

    After all, wasn't there a "Duke Nukem Forever seen in demo" article the other day?

    Everyone else is just piling in before Hell has a chance to defrost itself........

  16. Peter Bond
    Alert

    Music

    Big deal, the Rolling Stones and Dylan had a greater impact on popular music in my opinion. That's not to say Lennon and McCartney didn't knock out some damn fine tunes, they did, but this continuous desire to mark them out as above and beyond everyone else is just plain nonsense.

  17. Michael Thibault
    Grenade

    Bitter much?

    All you smug, testosterone-driven Beatles critics, dismissers, and mehn-ers: Tsk tsk! The Beatles belong in the pantheon of great influences (for their contributions to music and their influence on global culture) in much the same way as Shakespeare does. Neither is of the 'My Me Mine Myself iGeneration', of course - bitter yoof -, but even this generation will, mercifully, whither and pale and turn to dust eventually, too. True fact; read it here now, believe it later.

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