Beatles iTunes rumors to continue for some time to come..

Chauncey Dupree
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November 25, 2008
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According to Paul McCartney, who is obviously not too tied up with this stuff, the Beatles aren't yet close to showing up on the iTunes Music Store.  That being said, he acknowledged that there were indeed negotiations between Apple Corps/EMI and Apple, Inc.  And they are continuing.  Sort of.  He's not too bothered:

"We'd like to do it," McCartney was quoted as telling the BBC on its website on Tuesday. "We are very for it, we've been pushing it. But there are a couple of sticking points, I understand.

"Last word I got back was it's stalled at the moment," McCartney added. "But I really hope it will happen because I think it should." 

McCartney said that EMI, which has acted as the distributor for the Beatles since the early 1960s, "want something we're not prepared to give 'em.

"It's between EMI and The Beatles I think -- what else is new?"

The solo catalogues of all four members of The Beatles are available digitally, and fans are keen for the group, the most successful in pop music history, to follow suit.

"We have been working hard to secure agreement with Apple Corps to make the Beatles' legendary recording catalog available to fans in digital form," said a spokeswoman for EMI.

"Unfortunately, the various parties involved have been unable to reach agreement, but we really hope everyone can make progress soon."

It would seem that most of the people waiting for the Beatles to go digital would have already used alternative means to put their CDs or LPs on iTunes and that holding out for an official Beatles release is becoming less and less of a priority.

Comments (6)

Benjamin Dobson | November 25, 2008 - 10:08am

Not never, just not for a few more decades. Or possibly centuries.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | November 25, 2008 - 12:05pm

I hate the Beatles, so this does not really bother me. What I do not understand is what is taking so long. You either do it, or you don't..

You would think that more distrabution is better for the Beatles bottom line. If EMI has their dress in a bunch about not distibuting the music, then throw them a penny or 2 a track.

Really, this is not rocket science.

JFO (not verified) | November 25, 2008 - 1:55pm

I think this is very interesting....who knows if it's anything or not? The Apple ad for black friday looks very similar to the Beatles 1 album.

powers (not verified) | November 25, 2008 - 6:41pm

I think you need to watch "I Heart Huckabees"

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | November 29, 2008 - 4:28am

following on from "What I do not understand is what is taking so long. You either do it, or you don't.." is that there are legal issues as Apple had a falling out with the Beatles previous label over naming rights (they were also called apple) so yes, it is more complicated than just a yes or no

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | November 30, 2008 - 10:36am

"It would seem that most of the people waiting for the Beatles to go digital would have already used alternative means to put their CDs or LPs on iTunes and that holding out for an official Beatles release is becoming less and less of a priority."

#1 is the author talking about iTunes or the iTunes store? Because obviously we've always been able to use alternative means to put the Beatles on personal iTunes, but the article is about getting the Beatles catalog on the iTunes store.

#2 What would be interesting is how all this delay ultimately affects sales. By the time the Beatles catalog is actually available will anyone who wants it not already have it digitally? It's relatively trivial at this point to simply download the 3GB torrent on the pirate bay of the entire Beatles discography.

As an aside I've frankly gotten to the point that I find it easier to download torrents of albums I actually own rather than rip them myself and be bothered with all that inserting and ejecting.