Beatles On iTunes? Big Deal!
Today, after teasing visitors to their website with a cryptic message that implied something life-changing was going to happen, Apple announced to the world the breath-taking news that you can now download The Beatles songs from iTunes.
It’s been lauded as a major win for Apple after years of negotiating, or rather fighting with EMI to get the tracks on there. But is it really going to be that lucrative?
Most Beatles fans will already have copies of the albums they like on the various formats that they’ve been released on over the years. If they own the CDs, which most of them will because there was a major re-launch of most of them a few years back, then there has been nothing to stop them importing the CDs into iTunes or other brand MP3 catalogue software and sticking them on their iPod or other brand portable music player.
Last year EMI even released limited edition apple-shaped USB drives containing The Beatles’ 14 studio albums as digital files. And for those that have been too tight to go and purchase a Beatles album, a quick search on some
So this begs the question, who is now going to be downloading them via iTunes? This release brings nothing new to the market. There’s no hidden tracks, no re-mastered never-been-heard-before demo tapes, no special interviews. Nothing to tempt a buyer into purchasing a track or two. It’s just the same songs that have been available for 40 or 50 years, on a platform that does it’s best to annoy and confound it’s users.
If Apple think that by adding The Beatles to iTunes they’re opening up the music to a whole new generation, then might they be underestimating the market. The younger generation (13 years or older if you want to use iTunes in the US!) don’t want re-packaged hits that their parents and grand-parents listened to. They want new, exciting bands that they can connect to.
