That “exciting announcement” “that you’ll never forget”? Apple finally negotiated rights to distribute the Beatles on iTunes. Something I find forgettable and not exactly exciting. But maybe I’m just a cranky whipper snapper whose needs were met when Metallica went digital in 2006.
Regardless, this “news” will surely go mainstream and I fully expect my mom will catch it on television tonight or in the paper tomorrow. Like many of her generation, she’s a Beatles fan. And, as an iPod owner, she might be interested in making a purchase. However, I take issue with $1.29 iTunes track pricing when distribution costs are effectively zero. Nothing to print, ship, or store. Yet I wouldn’t want Mom to feel nostalgic but left out.
So I ordered her a compilation CD of 27 Beatles tracks from Amazon for 8 bucks. She’ll get it Thursday and, thanks to the aforementioned iTunes, will have no problem ripping the music and syncing it to her nano.
Thanks to Beatles fan Kevin Tofel for suggesting this particular CD. And thanks to iTunes for making it so easy for Mom – she doesn’t even know what “rip” and “sync” mean, but has had no problems digitizing her collection for iPod playback.
I am sure I am much younger than your mom, but my tastes are quite retro and I absolutely love The Beatles. Bought Beatles Rock Band for my PS3 so that my 8 year old son can jam with me to some of the greatest songs ever written.
As to the importance of the announcement, I consider it mostly symbolic. Apple Records has been suing Apple (Computer) Inc. for much of the last 30 years off and on because Woz/Jobs made a bad name choice. Having them finally on iTunes is huge in a historical sort of way. Can’t we all just get along — with our heroes?
As a Beatles fan myself, I’d have to say…what? I always thought it odd that they didn’t have the Beatles on iTunes but honestly, I already have all of my Beatles music in digital form. I gave away my vinyl long ago (retro tastes, but very technophilic otherwise) and just as long ago got CDs of all of their albums. Unlike most of what I buy on iTunes—onesies and one shot wonders—I get my Beatles as albums. And CDs are already digital. I just rerip them to a different format every so often and put the CDs away. Cheaper and more flexible with built in storage. As a fan, it is not at all tempting to me given the prices aren’t even that good—and I already bought them all besides. I only buy entire mp3 LPs when they are *cheap* (i.e., from Amazon), not when they are more or about the same as a CD.
Kudos to Jobs’ ego for landing this. But as a huge Beatles fan myself, I’m Looking Through You.
The CD is good. It sold something like 26 or 27 million copies. Got it for MY mom as soon as it came out :) For bigger selection (4 CDs), you could order Red and Blue anthologies, ($12.99/ea on Amazon).
I can’t believe Apple actually said this would be the day we’d never forget. I mean, if you want to hype things up, how about a media event and some Beatles-branded hardware or something?
Pricing for the entire collection is OK, I suppose, because Apple is including iTunes LP content, but it’s not competitive with the price of the set on Amazon ($129). As in ACTUAL CDs are cheaper than e-versions! :)
Anyway, wake me up Amazon MP3 store gets Beatles! Even though I now own iPod Touch, I still buy my music from Amazon.
Jon, I own a few CDs and did enjoy the Cirque tribute in Vegas. But I’m still nonplussed with the announcement. If they hadn’t taken over Apple.com for 24 hours, using such dramatic language, I probably would have had a different reaction. :)
“However, I take issue with $1.29 iTunes track pricing when distribution costs are effectively zero.”
Don’t you get it? If you order the tracks through iTunes, your mom will get magical Beatles tracks. Apple sprinkles unicorn tears onto the bits.
Besides, if you badmouth Cupertino like this, they’ll tell the workers in China to spit in your new MBA. You don’t want that, do you?
Also, as Jens sez, this is the correct response to Apple’s day you’ll never forget…
My Macbook Air left China about 5 hours ago… :)
Ditto, have all the Beatles albums digital (ripped from CDs I’m now getting rid of) and have had for many years. Not sure why there couldn’t get this done years ago. Yawn.
Just realized my playful last line may have been misconstrued (my fault). Didn’t mean I was looking through YOU, Dave, it was a gentle poke at the great leader himself, Jobs. And an obscure lyric at that.
Really in complete agreement this doesn’t matter. I feel its value is purely symbolic; CDs are way better deals than this. It matters to APPLE (Steve) only; it isn’t like Beatles fans haven’t been doing without the Fab Four all of this time…
Nope, not misconstrued. But after reading your comment, I did want to clarify that it was the hype not the artists that got me going.
“it was a gentle poke at the great leader himself”
I’m not sure you need to be gentle. Steve-o has done a lot of great stuff over the years, but the particular Steve-o who’s been with us since the transplant surgery has been Evil Steve.
I mean, seriously, if you had to name the top three evil media/tech CEO’s at the moment, you’d get Murdoch, Zuckerberg, and Steve-o.
It is a good day for us owners of the red/blue collection. Now I can pick up a few tracks left off those cds and complete “my” Beatles collection. ; )