Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Google and Amazon Bid for The Beatles' Catalog as EMI and Apple Corps Squabbled

I've got to put my hand up and admit I was one of the who cares set who said as much every time the 'Beatles are coming to the ITMS' story surfaced but I was downloading the 3 albums I was missing as soon as they were available.........

What's more I went back to the store to download all the B sides that were lost to me when I junked my vinyl collection in favour of cassettes 1st time round.

This is a major coup for Apple and they deserve some credit.
 
Sam Yikin said:
Is anyone else really surprised by the performance of the Box Set? It's the #11 album on all of iTunes right now, beating all but 3 of The Beatles' own studio albums!
That's quite something considering it costs $150.
Click to expand...

Yeah this surprised me too especially with all this screaming about wanting to buy only individual songs. If you go for the box why not buy the physical version for $30. less and get the wonderful artwork and booklets?? And better sound quality. It is a very cool box.
 
Preview All

I spent a couple of hours yesterday listening to the Beatles for free. Go to the box set, hit "preview all" and hear a stream of 30 seconds from each of the 250+ songs in their collection. I think the songs are in order of the dates the albums were recorded and I found it to be a great history of the band over time.

I don't own more than a few Beatles tracks and am considering the box set purchase. There are a LOT of people who don't already own Beatles songs and who are going to buy from iTunes. It's going to be the largest major influx of money for the store in quite a long time, maybe ever. That's significant and warrants the press release announcement Apple gave this release.

Preview All is a great way to spend a couple of hours, maybe while cleaning house. Enjoy!
 
BlackMangoTree said:
Some serious hating going on about all this, seems like from all over the web this was a huge failure for Apple.
Click to expand...

Maybe from the fanboys, but this has been a huge success and we are just entering Christmas season. It seems so many of you are not looking at this is terms of consumer marketing and sales. More people buy music=more people buying Apple products. You are looking at a very small world view if it is just the tech sites. Check out the NY Times, Rolling Stone, Time Magazine, CNN, MSNBS Mojo and on and on.

Have you seen the sales charts? Yes this is only the beginning. You probably don't watch TV but there will be tons of ads and more people will buy their music via iTunes this holiday season.

A very smart move by Apple. Maybe you are not the audience but I bet Apple and MACs get an uptick in sales of their hardware just simply by signing the Beatles first. Eben a 1% jump in sales will add many millions of dollars to their bottom line.
 
Bruce Lee said:
I think the amount of negatives to positives should paint you a clear picture.
Click to expand...

Yeah, because a bunch of posters on a Mac rumours forum is really indicative of popular opinion. The whole world is represented right here.

Clear picture my ***. :rolleyes:
 
Thirddaylou said:
who cares.... !
Click to expand...

Enough to put several Beatles albums on the top of the iTunes charts.

Sorry, but this whole "who cares" argument is bunk. The realty is that The Beatles continue to be one of if not THE hottest property in the realm of popular music. To date there has been NO official digital outlet for their music. Having them come to iTunes, and in doing so plug a gigantic hole in the iTunes catalogue IS news. Big news. Anyone who says otherwise is either just being contrary for the sake of being contrary or has very little understanding of the magnitude of The Beatles as a revenue generating source and a cultural touchstone.
 
JeffDalon said:
I spent a couple of hours yesterday listening to the Beatles for free. Go to the box set, hit "preview all" and hear a stream of 30 seconds from each of the 250+ songs in their collection. I think the songs are in order of the dates the albums were recorded and I found it to be a great history of the band over time.

I don't own more than a few Beatles tracks and am considering the box set purchase. There are a LOT of people who don't already own Beatles songs and who are going to buy from iTunes. It's going to be the largest major influx of money for the store in quite a long time, maybe ever. That's significant and warrants the press release announcement Apple gave this release.

Preview All is a great way to spend a couple of hours, maybe while cleaning house. Enjoy!
Click to expand...

great suggestion!

I think michael jacksons death is probably the biggest single influence on the iTunes chart I've seen. Im sure he had 2-3 albums in the top 5. This definitely looks set to beat that and that would be massive. Like I said I hope they get a number album or song out of this.
 
I used to have the Blue and Red vinyl albums (among others), but lent them to a person who eventually moved without returning my albums. I'd never replaced them; but with the new iTunes announcement it made me think about it again.

So I bought both yesterday... as CDs from Amazon. :D They were $12.99 apiece over there, versus $19.99 on iTunes.
 
Fanboyofnothing said:
Seriously, who gives a crap? Anyone remotely interested in this dinosaur "rock" band bought the albums or CDs long ago. This is dumb. Almost as dumb as calling a gimped Internet tablet "magical".
Click to expand...

Yep..... Which is why both are selling their complete arses (asses for the Americans) off.

Fortunately, Apple are clearly smarter than the average 'mac rumors' reader... And are now reaping the rewards. You guys really don't see outside of your own limited little world, do you!

Thank god apple ignores the opinion of the unwashed masses.

But I'm sure Samsung will listen to your wish, and provide access to a music store that doesn't have the beatles.
 
A Beatles *and* Apple fanboy...now there's a perfect combination of I'm better than you attitude. :rolleyes:
 
Another issue which involves other parties is ownership of the Beatles' "song catalog," which Michael Jackson bought a number of years ago.

The Publishing rights to most of the Beatles' biggest hits are owned by one entity, a joint venture between the late Michael Jackson and the music arm of Sony Corp. It's called Sony/ATV, and it also owns the rights to songs written by Bob Dylan, Neil Diamond, Taylor Swift and, oh yes, the Jonas Brothers.

But Sony/ATV does not handle the recordings of Beatles songs.​

I don't fully understand this (please chime in if you do), but it does involve more than "sheet music" rights....

Now, Sony/ATV owns 267 songs written mostly by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. That collection—which comprises most of the Beatles' hits—continues to make bank; in fact, Sony/ATV recently negotiated a deal to allow some of the songs to be used on a Beatles version of Rock Band.​
 
Last edited:
Bruce Lee said:
I think the amount of negatives to positives should paint you a clear picture.
Click to expand...

It will give you an idea about what the kids on Macrumors think about the story. They wanted some shiny new toy, and got some music instead. They're not happy.

As for everyone else? They care. Look at the sales. And the fact that this story made it into newspapers around the world. In fact, there has probably been more mainstream media attention on this than most big Apple hardware launches.
 
WiiDSmoker said:
A day in which no one cared.
Click to expand...

Thirddaylou said:
who cares.... !
Click to expand...

Why do people who don't care, care enought to post that they don't care.

:rolleyes:

Anyway, I think after one of the Apple Corp/EMI lawsuits was settled in the 80s, an agreement was made that anytime EMI wanted to release Beatle material, they had to get the approval of Apple [Paul, Ringo, George (when he was alive; his wife after) and Yoko].

I wondered if Google want to use this as a rollout for a new music store we keep hearing about.
 
JTVPRO said:
I like the Beatles and am glad that it is available on itunes, but the details of the agreement are meaningless to me.

Not surprised that a bunch Beatles fans are drooling at every bit of trivia that comes out about the Fabulous Four.

Done with it.
Click to expand...

The best way to deal with threads you're not interested in is to read them, and then comment on them.
 
bigpics said:
Another issue which involves other parties is ownership of the Beatles' "song catalog," which Michael Jackson bought a number of years ago.
Click to expand...

Actually, Jackson only bought a 50% share of the publishing rights to the Northern Songs catalogue. Just the publishing rights. Additionally, Jackson actually sold half of his 50% interest to Sony at a later date, so the Jackson estate doesn't actually hold a controlling interest in the Northern Songs catalogue anymore.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back