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Beatles May Be Planning Music Download Service

Wednesday, April 12th, 2006 at 1:10 PM - by Staff

Statements made during the Apple Corps vs Apple Computer case concerning the use of the Apple logo in association with the iTunes Music Store (iTMS) are leading some to speculate that the Beatles entire back catalog will eventually be available though the iPod maker's music service. According to Starpulse, there is no official release date yet.

Neil Aspinall of Apple Corps is reported to have said "We're remastering the whole Beatles catalog, just to make it sound brighter and better and getting proper booklets to go with each of the packages. I think it would be wrong to offer downloads of the old masters when I am making new masters. It would be better to wait and try to do them both simultaneously so that you then get the publicity of the new masters and the downloading, rather than just doing it ad hoc."

Mr. Aspinall does not specifically mention adding the Beatles collection to the iTMS, but does mention downloading music. Considering the current animosity between the two companies, an iTunes deal seems very unlikely.

TMO has contacted Apple Corps for clarification on Mr. Aspinall's statement, but has not yet received a reply.

Macworld UK, however, says that it has received confirmation. According to their report, Apple Corps is working planning on releasing the Beatles works for digital download.

There is still no official word yet on whether or not Apple Corps is considering distributing music through the iTMS.

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vasic said:

member since 09 Aug 2005 with 279 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Wed Apr 12, 2006 1:40 pm

Keep in mind, people, that these are businesses. In other words, as much as they may behave like spoiled brats now, they will have a hard time convincing their stockholders/other interested parties not to do business with each other. Apple has little to gain from the Beatles catalogue, although it would make their iTMS more complete. Apple Corp, though has win-or-lose situation; do it on their own and sell ~14,000 tracks, or make a deal with iTMS and sell 14M tracks. Besides, the verdict in the law suit is coming down any day now, which means, they can put the thing behind them and play nice with each other again!

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Dave said:

member since 11 Jun 2001 with 227 posts, TMO Staff, send him a message or view his profile

Wed Apr 12, 2006 2:23 pm

Of course, I think Apple Corps is a privately held company whose shareholders might just likely fall into your "spoiled brats" category, in that they can continue to act however they like, because the money's been flowing in for decades now. So while I agree with you that "smart business" would lead them down the path of knocking on Uncle Steve's door, they may decide to stick to their guns and (why stop the analogies now?) cut off their noses to spite their faces.

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Biff said:

member since 08 Apr 2004 with 1479 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Wed Apr 12, 2006 2:24 pm

"Beatles May Be Planning Music Download Service."

Other sensational headlines that could have been used for this story:

"Beatles back in the studio."

"Beatles don't deny entire catalog to be available on iTMS."

"Apple remastering entire Beatles catalog."

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BradC said:

member since 29 Apr 2005 with 81 posts, TMO Staff, send him a message or view his profile

Wed Apr 12, 2006 2:46 pm

How are the words "may be planning" a sensationalization of the story? We've been trying to get confirmation from Apple Corps but haven't been able to yet. In the meantime, Macworld UK said it had confirmation, so we put up a story reflecting the tentative nature of the information. Your first two suggestions, Biff, don't even reflect what's in the article, while the third one actually does convey what Apple Corps' attorney is alleged to have said in court, and thus couldn't be considered sensational either. Unfortunately, we couldn't afford to send a staffer to the UK for a week to cover the trial, so we've had to rely on other media outlets.

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Tiger said:

member since 17 Jun 2003 with 1018 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Wed Apr 12, 2006 3:03 pm

Isn't the problem here that the Beatles no longer exist, haven't for decades, and therefore shouldn't be the subject in the headline? How can they be planning a music dowload service.

It's Apple Craps, I mean Corps. Excuse me. And offering 30+ year old music now, while it may provide them with a small revenue stream, is just a little too late to have any real major impact. If the powers that be at Apple Corps had thought more than 2 seconds about it, they would have surmised that with 40 million iPods sold, and 1 billion songs, SOME of them might have been Beatle's tunes.

Tell me where the worm is again????

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Apr 12, 2006 3:50 pm

You ppl that are always bitchin about grammar errors in the article or spelling mistakes and even whining about the headlines now should stop reading it and start your own Apple news website. Since you are all so perfect and would never make a mistake I'm sure it would be a big hit.

Not.

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Apr 12, 2006 6:59 pm

After the two Apples resolve the litigation, can we then finally impeach Dangerous Dumb Dubya (DDD)? Why? Remember the mobile bio labs and Dubya said "we have found the WMDs?" So where are the WMDs? Where did he hide them and refused to convey their location to the inspectors?

I betcha Jobs could have done a better job at finding the WMDs by bying the Apple Corps and send them out on the mission to find them. This would have shown Bush's military corps how to do the job. *S*

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Biff said:

member since 08 Apr 2004 with 1479 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Thu Apr 13, 2006 7:02 am

LOL. Sorry guest you're obviously quite the TMO expert since I always heckle the guests who bitch about the grammer and stuff. But excuse me, "Beatles May Be Planning Music Download Service"??? Funny I saw nothing in the article about that. Is it going to be subscription based? What DRM scheme will the Beatles choose for their music download service? Please, oh mighty ones, show me one bit of info that justified going from the digital remastering of the Beatles catalog to them starting their own freakin' music service! Nothing? Oh yeah. So hmm I guess the headline is not accurate. But hey it sure gets your attention though. One might call that, I dunno... sensational?

It's not the end of the world, but I thought I'd point it out and take the opportunity to throw in a little humor while I was at it. So in case you're still not with us BradC, I'll say it once more. I was joking around. Sorry if my fake headlines are too complex for you. Apple corps is remastering the Beatles music, hence "Beatles back in the studio." Get it? Are you with me now?

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Intruder said:

member since 07 Jul 2004 with 3149 posts, TMO Mac Specialist, send him a message or view his profile

Thu Apr 13, 2006 11:08 am

Anonymous wrote:
After the two Apples resolve the litigation, can we then finally impeach Dangerous Dumb Dubya (DDD)? Why? Remember the mobile bio labs and Dubya said "we have found the WMDs?" So where are the WMDs? Where did he hide them and refused to convey their location to the inspectors?

I betcha Jobs could have done a better job at finding the WMDs by bying the Apple Corps and send them out on the mission to find them. This would have shown Bush's military corps how to do the job. *S*

What has this got to do with the topic at hand?

If you want to spew your political diatribe, please login and do it in the appropriate forum so everybody can ignore it.

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tbone1 said:

member since 13 Jul 2001 with 3981 posts, TMO Staff, send him a message or view his profile

Thu Apr 13, 2006 11:48 am

Biff wrote:
"Beatles May Be Planning Music Download Service."

Other sensational headlines that could have been used for this story:

"Beatles back in the studio."

"Beatles don't deny entire catalog to be available on iTMS."

"Apple remastering entire Beatles catalog."

"Francisco Franco is still dead!"

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tbone1 said:

member since 13 Jul 2001 with 3981 posts, TMO Staff, send him a message or view his profile

Thu Apr 13, 2006 11:49 am

Dave wrote:
Of course, I think Apple Corps is a privately held company whose shareholders might just likely fall into your "spoiled brats" category, in that they can continue to act however they like, because the money's been flowing in for decades now. So while I agree with you that "smart business" would lead them down the path of knocking on Uncle Steve's door, they may decide to stick to their guns and (why stop the analogies now?) cut off their noses to spite their faces.

... and toss off cliche's as old as the hills 'til the cows come home.

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BradC said:

member since 29 Apr 2005 with 81 posts, TMO Staff, send him a message or view his profile

Thu Apr 13, 2006 12:38 pm

"So in case you're still not with us BradC, I'll say it once more. I was joking around. Sorry if my fake headlines are too complex for you. Apple corps is remastering the Beatles music, hence "Beatles back in the studio." Get it? Are you with me now?"

I write for TMO and iPO, Biff, so I'm here every day. (No, I didn't write the story in question.)

Why don't you try looking at Neil Aspinall's quote again?

"We're remastering the whole Beatles catalog, just to make it sound brighter and better and getting proper booklets to go with each of the packages. I think it would be wrong to offer downloads of the old masters when I am making new masters. It would be better to wait and try to do them both simultaneously so that you then get the publicity of the new masters and the downloading, rather than just doing it ad hoc."

So, if Apple Corps is going to offer downloads of the Beatles' music, how will they do that? Will they just throw the files on a P2P network and let people have them for free? Or will they -- oh, I dunno -- *sell them*? And -- wait for it -- if Apple Corps was to sell The Beatles' music, they'd have to do it through an online music store. That store could be one set up by them, hence the use of the phrase "may be planning."

You're accusing us of sensationalizing the story, and my point was simply that we were clear about the tentative nature of the information, until we can get official word out of Apple Corps.

Get it?

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A guest said: (hide)

Wed Apr 26, 2006 12:47 pm

no

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