News
Yoko Ono, EMI dispute Beatles on iTunes availability
By Charles Starrett
Contributing Editor
Published: Tuesday, September 8, 2009
News Categories: iTunes
Conflicting reports out of The Beatles’ camp are casting doubt over whether or not the arrival of the band’s newly-remastered back catalog on the iTunes Store will be part of tomorrow’s Apple media event. EMI’s global catalog president Ernesto Schmitt told the Financial Times that “[c]onversations between Apple and EMI are ongoing and we look forward to the day when we can make the music available digitally. But it’s not tomorrow,” backing up a story from AllThingsD that cited a “source familiar with the band’s plans” claiming no announcement was scheduled for the event. Yoko Ono, however, is believed to have told UK outlet Sky News that the catalog would indeed debut on iTunes during the special event; both the original and Google cache of the article are now gone, while screenshots of the article appearing on Google News and being linked on Twitter are still available at 9 to 5 Mac.
As part of an interview for a special edition of music publication NME, Paul McCartney addressed the iTunes situation, saying that “We were having problems with iTunes – well not iTunes, EMI was the problem – with downloading, which we’d like to do because that’s how a lot of people get their music.” Tomorrow also happens to mark the CD release of the newly-remastered back catalog and the debut of the new The Beatles: Rock Band video game.
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1
The stupidity of all this amazes me. The remasters have been available for download in any format you want, including perfect lossless copies of the CDs, for nearly a week now. The beginning and end of negotiating for download rights ought to go something like, “You want to sell our music and give us money for that? Done.”
You can either give people the option to pay for their downloads, or you can continue to have no excuse for what the modern music consumer is going to do completely outside of your control anyhow.
Posted by Code Monkey in Midstate New York on September 8, 2009 at 2:37 PM (PST)
2
I honestly dont understand why people want the beatles on itunes so bad surely the majority have most songs on CD already and the main beatles fans will want the lossless versions. Why not just buy the remastered CD’s and import its not exactly complex and importing will take less time than downloading. People should stop bringing up the beatles coming because really its not that important those who want it will have it/get it on CD simple as.
Posted by rob on September 8, 2009 at 3:30 PM (PST)
3
Really. I mean who are the Beatles anyway?
Posted by JS on September 8, 2009 at 3:37 PM (PST)
4
Leave it to Yoko to mess this up…..
Posted by Nancy B on September 8, 2009 at 4:26 PM (PST)
5
To those people who think the Beatles on iTunes is no big deal, since fans already have all their music or could just buy and rip the CDs themselves—
If and when they show up in the iTunes Store, would you like to bet on whether or not the Beatles reach the iTunes Top Ten? If your logic is sound, their music will languish in the iTunes Store with minimal sales.
Posted by BJ Nemeth on September 8, 2009 at 5:14 PM (PST)
6
It’s about reaching new fans and continuing the legacy. In other words $$
Posted by solar on September 9, 2009 at 4:14 AM (PST)
7
The Beatles music is part of a music revolution so it being more readily available should have quite an impact on itunes purchases made by an older demographic. That having been said… Didn’t Michael Jackson own the rights to their music some kind of way?
Posted by gmann21133 on September 9, 2009 at 4:48 AM (PST)
8
It doesn’t make sense for Apple to hold this event on the date the Beatles are releasing their remastered album and video game and NOT announce them as being now on iTunes…
and it doesn’t make sense for the Beatles to go through the trouble of remastering their music and putting out a video game based on said music, only to NOT have them included on iTunes.
Posted by Jayderek18 on September 9, 2009 at 5:23 AM (PST)
9
This woman had nothing to do with the creation of any of this music, why is she such a pain in the world’s ###. Her ruse of being a peacenik, is wearing awfully thin, and her money grabs are horrendous, JOHN IS SPINNING IN HIS GRAVE !! I mean really, John was NEVER interested in using their catalog for advertising purposes, and now they are using Instant Karma ?!?!?! Joko is going to get her Karma wagon straightened out, and if I can help legally I certainly will try to help. What is her frikkin problem, and now a Rock Band game ???? I mean really…...
Posted by Joko is full of litigious ire on September 9, 2009 at 6:06 AM (PST)
10
I realize that Yoko bashing seems to be as inevitable as the sun coming up, but some of you folks are downright nuts: she’s the one saying the catalog would be coming to iTunes, it’s the label itself that’s being obstinate and denying the songs will be available. Is it opposite day?
Posted by Code Monkey in Midstate New York on September 9, 2009 at 6:18 AM (PST)