It’s impossible to say, since no one involved will make a definitive statement on the topic. The Beatles’ business entity, Apple Corps, has to agree to anything done by EMI, which owns the group’s recordings. And the two sides have yet to cut a deal. In the interim, every once in a while there is a rumor that the Beatles’ catalog is finally set to arrive online, sometimes with special extras, such as a “Yellow Submarine” iPod. Neither EMI, Apple Corps or iTunes would comment.
My feelings about this are mixed. I already own all of the digital Beatles' catalog so what do I care? And if I were missing anything, it's not that hard to fill in the missing pieces; Beatles' music is available just about anywhere. So really, there's no need to put their music on iTunes, is there?
Money's certainly not a reason, though money's always nice, isn't it? (To quote David Mamet, that's why they call it money.) No, I hold with those who say if you're going to make music and put it out there for consumption, you have to put it out there online and if you put it out there online, the only place to put it is on iTunes. Oh, sure, there are lots of places to purchase digital music online; at best, those places are only pale imitations of the iTunes model. The Beatles, once cutting edge in the music industry, risk turning into dinosaurs. If they fail to make their music available online, it'd be the same as if they only made their music available on vinyl.
Posts
Although vinyl IS phenomenal! However not too portable, okay.
ReplyDelete"However, not too portable, okay."
ReplyDeleteI never can get those vinyl records to fit in the CD player just right.