No Beatles... but Custom Ringtones?

[jfmartin]

Get over it !

Come on ! Guys ! Can you just rip your Beatles CD into iTunes and sync with the iPod ? Why wait for Apple ???

Ringtones... mmm, that was lame but I guess this make Apple the only cell phone manufacturer who cares to improve the software it ships with the hardware...

 

[Project]

Music is not newspapers. They have no dates and no pictures unless you're hung up on album covers. Music expresses emotion and if you can relate to the artist's message then that song lives with you forever.

I somewhat disagree with this. Sure, you can have timeless music and albums that transcend the generations. But periods or eras of music definitely have a 'date' to them, and for some people certain music sounds dated. In the same way a lot of people cant get into a Dickens or Shakespeare novel because the writing dynamics changed, yet the story remained the same.

 

[nja247]

I do!!

But either way, I'll be happy...or both!!

Seriously, just buy their albums and rip them to iTunes using whatever format and quality setting you want. No need to wait. Sure it'd be great to be able to buy a track on the whim whilst high as someone suggested, but if you're that much of a fan you'd have most of their work regardless.

Though having their work on a digital library will be a symbolic moment, yet there's really no need to 'wait' -- when/if it happens it happens.

 

[nja247]

From Wikipedia:

""The Beat Goes On" is a song recorded by Sonny and Cher. It was issued as a single and appeared on their 1967 album In Case You're in Love. It peaked at number 6 on the pop charts, charting January 14, 1967. It has been covered by American jazz musician Buddy Rich, jazz pianist/singer Patricia Barber, Italian singer Mina, and the British electronic music group All Seeing I produced a cover version of this for Britney Spears on her hit debut album, ...Baby One More Time. The song was recently featured on a television commercial for Egg Beaters.[citation needed]
This song is incorrectly referred to as And The Beat Goes On, due to the fact the closing lyric adds the word "and" to the song's title (the actual one has no "and"). There was an unrelated song released in 1980 actually called "And The Beat Goes On" (recorded by The Whispers).
"The Beat Goes On" was sung at Sonny Bono's funeral, and the phrase also appears on his tombstone."

OMG!! A Sonny and Cher iPod!!!!
Seriously....
OK here's the final Beatles press release as found at http://purplelagoon.org/Beatles/:
---------
Spring is here and Leeds play Chelsea tomorrow and Ringo and John
and George and Paul are alive and well and full of hope.
The world is still spinning and so are we and so are you.
When the spinning stops — that'll be the time to worry, not before.
Until then, the Beatles are alive and well and the beat goes on, the beat goes on.
— Final Beatles press release, April 10, 1970

Not that this has anything to do with it (probably anyway), but 'The beat goes on' is also the name of the new single from Madonna and Pharrel, from her unnamed, unannounced, upcoming album.

 

[Dwight Schrute]

On another note: When younger people who don't really know or care about the Beatles hear about them, they usually think of maybe four songs: "Hard Day's Night", "She Loves You", "Sgt. Peppers" and "Yellow Submarine" Which I understand can sound kinda tiresome... The cure is the Abbey Road album, which can still go toe-to toe against anything produced in the last 38 years.

After playing Abbey Road to someone for a first time:
"That's a beatles song?!"
"Yea, that's a beatles song."

Abbey Road is great pop music - Revolver is more innovative and in many ways less Beatles-y.

 

[Dwight Schrute]

Spring is here and Leeds play Chelsea tomorrow and Ringo and John
and George and Paul are alive and well and full of hope.
The world is still spinning and so are we and so are you.
When the spinning stops — that'll be the time to worry, not before.
Until then, the Beatles are alive and well and the beat goes on, the beat goes on.
— Final Beatles press release, April 10, 1970

Leeds play Chelsea? Is this a reference to football (soccer)?

 

[Luke714]

Looks like Imogen Heap has Made an iTunes Ringtone

I was reading Imogen Heap's blog last night and came across this:

"...then three days later went to New York and around for a good mate's wedding for a week. While I was out there of course, met up with people, did some "business" stuff including a rather sexy (sad as it sounds) ring tone for a certain company I rather like. If it comes off (probably sept) i'll let you know then...if not, i'll put it on the site anyway. It's an all vocal 50 second, getting more and more layered and complex mini song. I can't really describe it but I think it's rather groovy."

She uses a Macbook Pro extensively in her gigs, so i'm guessing she is the first to leak having made a special ringtone for Apple.

 

[rockstarjoe]

It sure is depressing to see people say things like "ringtones > beatles".

I already have all of their music ripped from CD, and I'm still excited to see them on the iTunes store. I'm can't wait to hear the new re-masters.

 

[coolbreeze]

So if you (like me) prefer an actual business-sounding ringer (i.e. normal tone) I'm out of luck? I'd rather not pay to download a song, then chop it up. Nothing like hearing "Under my uhm-br-ella-a-a-a-eh-eh" ringing out while in a business setting.

I just want to be able to place simple sound snippits on my iPhone. Don't care about blaring music ringers.

 

[Parky]

I say ********. Apple has Beatles album covers on the invitation for the event.

I don't recognise any Beatles album covers on the invite.

I see MIKA and Keane.

Ian

 

[Nepenthe]

You mean they will have the life and dynamic range ripped out of them so they will sound peppy on cheap apple earbuds and low quality equipment?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war#Remasters

Not really disagreeing with this, but keep in mind that sometimes remastering can improve the "quality" of albums - EVEN IF the final destination of the remasters is 128k AAC. Good examples are "older" albums like the Beatles, U2, Stones, Dylan, etc... that have been around for a while. Lots of these albums were recorded poorly in cheap studios or live (ie. before the bands became rich'n'famous) or with older noiser equipment.

Running the 60's, 70's tracks through a modern digital restoration and remastering setup can expose them to some great new EQ, noise reduction, and editing technology. (And, yes, they can get the dynamic range crushed out of them radio-style).

 

[Cloudsurfer]

Why is Apple making this big a deal out of ringtones? Every phone on Earth lets you select any sound file as ringtone, but iPhone, supposedly the most advanced one of them, doesn't let you do that.

 

[netdoc66]

Hold your horses, the next few months are just going to be amazing! We're looking at refreshing the entire iPod range, Leopard, Europe iPhone launch and more I'm sure.

The reason that I am Apple-unimpressed is because for the technology that I've brought from them this year is pretty much half finished. Steve Jobs made big noises to describe the Apple TV. I so wanted the Apple TV when I got it I realized that some parts weren't in the box (Video playlist, Media genre's etc). I say to myself, "that's ok, their gonna fix this stuff soon." I'm still waiting for these things. The iPhone, I brought the iPhone again parts missing. Ringtones, copy & paste and third part REAL apps and not those iphone formatted websites. I said that's ok Apple will update these missing pieces. Also, isn't it illegal for Apple to lock this phone up like this? I mean shouldn't I be able to get this thing unlocked if I want to travel overseas? I don't see anything innovative with these "I give you later" strategies. It insults my intelligence to have these things delivered as such. So, my faith in Apple to deliver "fully intact products" is 0%. The dumbing down of existing products; ie, glossy screens on iMacs to prevent them from being used for design. The exclusion of certain iMovie functionality to influence purchase of Final Cut Express. These things are fundamentally bad business practices. I used to like the Apple swagger but now that Apple is pimpin' me my mindset is to " think differently then Apple does."

To summarized: Apple TV: crippled. iPhone: OK but not the NEXT EVOLUTION of phone and definately not 5 years ahead of anything. iMac: glossy screen cripples it to be a movie watching machine. Leopard: huh? hope they blow my socks off with Leopard. I'm sure it will come with missing parts.

 

[netdoc66]

PS: I was going to buy a new iMac but with a glossy screen as the only option for display. not gonna happen.

 

[jouster]

....and "Yellow Submarine" Which I understand can sound kinda tiresome...

My opinion too. I love the Beatles, with the exception of "Yellow Submarine," which is an awful, silly, childish dirge. Kinda can't be bothered with the four hour outtro to "Hey Jude" either.....

Leeds play Chelsea? Is this a reference to football (soccer)?

Yes. Sadly for Leeds fans these days, they won't be playing Chelsea any time soon.....

 

[skellener]

I don't care about any band that made music before 1982 and I also disregard any influence they had on the music industry and music as a whole before I was born.

Basically music before 1982 does not exist in my mind.

Dugg down for stupidity.

 

[ibwb]

I'm waiting for the Apple fan boi justifying Apple charging to put ringtones that the customer may have already paid for, spending more money for the opportunity to put on their iPhone.

It should be a fun time...

Sigh... this is such a clueless statement, I don't know where to begin.

OK, as much as people go on about how Apple (through the iPod and the iTMS) has taken on the music industry, they are still a minor player with little power overall. Apple's success with the iTMS has been based on a delicate balance between convincing the rest of the industry that the store is in their best interest on one hand, while on the other hand taking various anti-industry strategic steps ("Rip, Mix, Burn", podcasting, maintaining a sensible price model, etc).

As such, various aspects of the iTMS are concessions to the music industry that were necessary for the store to exist at all. Generally these compromises have been mirrored in the music stores that have followed (at least, in those stores that sell music from major labels).

If you did even the slightest shred of research into Apple's position before coming on here and calling people names, you'd be aware that one of those compromises is a clause in the iTMS ToS (which every iTMS user must agree to) stating that none of your iTMS purchased songs can legally be used as ringtones. This clause has been around for years, well before the iPhone was a blip on Apple's radar, and it was required by the labels simply because selling ringtones was (and is) a huge profit center for them.

So for Apple to allow ringtones to be created from iTMS songs, they need to renegotiate contracts with the labels, and the labels will certainly want some kind of compensation. In my opinion, it's flat-out obvious that this is the reason why custom ringtones are so late; the negotiations weren't completed in time for the iPhone release.

Of course it would be ridiculous for Apple to release a ringtone creator that wouldn't work with songs purchased from their own music store, as that would really be shooting themselves in the foot; that's why you won't be able to make ringtones from non-iTMS files either until the situation with iTMS songs is resolved. Other cell phone manufacturers are simply not in this kind of position.

 

[KingofAwesome]

But if the coverflow is sorted alphabetically, the placeholder ("September 5") would be in the right place for "Beatles".

It would be in the right place for "Beck" or "Bedrock" too.

Why would anyone want to hear a 5.1 mix of an album that wasn't conceived of as a surround sound project? Novelty value at best; total desecration at worst.

Perhaps you don't understand how much control they have when remastering - they usually still can access each individual track, as it originally came in from the microphone. A good remastering project will start with the original tracks brought in from the original reels, and then the engineers and producers can work on it as if it was recorded earlier that day.

Whether or not an album was conceived as a 5.1 project, the individual instruments would still generally be recorded into single mics (except instruments like pianos, where the sound comes from various places). Even a drumset wouldn't have overheads set up in a surround style.

I've heard "Love" in surround, and I think that it came out quite well in surround. More than a novelty, for sure.

 

[slffl]

Wow, I'm amazed at how many people DON'T want custom ringtones.

 

[coolbreeze]

Wow, I'm amazed at how many people DON'T want custom ringtones.

I think people would welcome user-customizable ringers, they just don't want to be tied to the iTMS music-only ringers.

I really wish AAPL would just let us put our own ringtones on our phones. It's simple, really.

 

[Unspeaked]

Well, if it can discriminate between songs, then this sounds like a shot across Universal's bow. A little bit of retribution for U not playing nice with contracts and DRM-free music?

Actually, I would imagine this is Universal's choice and not Apple's...

A lot of people including myself care about the Beatles. They are the reason we have any good music today.

I love The Beatles as much as the next guy, but this is a pretty silly statement.

Id add that all of the above except the Beastie Boys and maybe Sonic Youth, to me anyway, are very British/British inspired sounds.

Uh, the Flaming Lips are British inspired? That's news to me...

But people like me (and probably you), born in later generations, couldn't care two cents about the Beatles.

You care enough to make that post.

And to put together some pretty speculative conclusions...

I think The Beatles on iTunes is as much symbolic as it is commercial.

This is *SO* right on, and could be used in response to a third of the posts in this thread.

The reason this is a big deal isn't because people are clamoring for Beatles downloads on iTunes, it's because it's a big deal in and of itself.

If you read music industry trades, you'll see this has been talked about for ages. Heck, even the general music media has been waiting for this forever, and don't get me started on the Apple/tech community.

This is one of those stories that would cross-over from MacRumors into those cute little 1 minute and 30 second segements they stick into the end of the nightly news... those are always a big deal.

I somewhat disagree with this. Sure, you can have timeless music and albums that transcend the generations. But periods or eras of music definitely have a 'date' to them, and for some people certain music sounds dated. In the same way a lot of people cant get into a Dickens or Shakespeare novel because the writing dynamics changed, yet the story remained the same.

Yeah, bands like Strawberry Alarm Clock - even if they are fun to listen to - are certainly carved into their own era and easily dated.

Abbey Road is great pop music - Revolver is more innovative and in many ways less Beatles-y.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Much less dated sounding; Octopus's Garden alone ruins Abbey Road for me...

 

[bigdz68]

I think people would welcome user-customizable ringers, they just don't want to be tied to the iTMS music-only ringers.

I really wish AAPL would just let us put our own ringtones on our phones. It's simple, really.

I agree!
But of course you can put any ringtone you want on your phone in under 5 minutes with Audio Hijack Pro and some 3rd party software! Even if you have a PPC/Intel/Windows machine!

 

[nemaslov]

Except it isn't quite true. There's plenty of singles cuts (A and B-sides) on the Beatles official UK album releases, particularly the earlier ones. However the tracks always appeared on singles first, except for the 'Something/Come Together' double A-side which appeared around a month after the release of 'Abbey Road'.

Yes early on only with first few albums, but soon Singles were a totally separate release. They were not added to albums after the fact like in the States. Sgt. Pepper was the first album where the UK and US versions were the same. That's why when the CDs came out in the 80s, they added two CDS full of the singles and EPs that were never on albums:


Past Masters Volume One:

When the Beatles albums were first released on compact disc, this collection (and a second collection entitled Past Masters, Volume Two) were put together so that the Beatles' entire catalogue of released work would be available on CD. None of these songs (in the versions included on this album) are found on any of the Beatles' original non-compilation albums released in the UK up to 1970.

Past Masters, Volume Two

is a compilation album by The Beatles released in 1988. It contains tracks from several Beatles singles (including some B-sides) and one album track (the "Wildlife" version of "Across the Universe") that were originally released between 1965 and 1970.
When the Beatles' albums were first released on compact disc, this collection (along with a second collection entitled Past Masters, Volume One) was put together so that the Beatles' entire catalogue of released work would be available on CD. One American LP, Magical Mystery Tour, was released on CD which include the Beatles' 1967 singles explaining why no 1967 recordings are included here. None of these songs (in the versions included on this album) are found on any of the Beatles' original non-compilation albums released in the UK up to 1970, although several songs feature on the U.S. compilation album Hey Jude.

 

[milo]

I don't get why anyone would pay for a ringtone. Ever.

All I care about is being able to put any audio file on as a ringtone, I'd be more interested in making my own than putting a song on.

I just don't get why someone would "buy" a song again just so they can hear it when their phone rings.

 

[Derwood]

What disappoints me...

Perhaps you don't understand how much control they have when remastering

I understand the process all too well (I worked as an audio engineer in various studios around the UK for nearly ten years), and what disappoints me with remixing records in 5.1 is that it is a lot, and in many case a LOT of work that, from what I have heard, rarely yields enough to make it worthwhile. For live recordings? Yes, totally understand that. Totally. For studio albums, and perhaps its a very personal thing, but that I just don't understand. Its certainly not uncommon for the artist to not even involve themselves with the 5.1 mixing and to elect to simply approve the final masters.

And why should they? We're talking about creative people who are being asked to revisit things they did 30 odd years ago. There are very few creatives I know who would relish the idea of trawling over past works. Onwards and upwards is the attitude.

Record labels will, and historically have, tried every trick in the book to get the consumer to buy, over and over again, music that you already own and remastering / 5.1 / multi-format single release / new formats / bonus-tracks / previously unreleased tracks are all devices that make this happen. I can understand why an artist wouldn't necessarily fall over themselves to be involved with a retrospective cash-cow project when they could be working on new things.

I still haven't heard a 5.1 mix of a record originally released in stereo / mono that has made me think: "Yeah, this is it. I get it." That said, I'm certainly open to suggestions. I would like to be convinced otherwise.

Love? The band or The George & Giles Martin Beatles thing? Haven't heard it I have to say. Will endeavour to check it out.

All the best,

Derwood