No Beatles On iTunes: I Don’t Feel Fine
The Apple special event on 9/9/09 saw no mention of The Beatles on iTunes — something I predicted, partly because all the planets seemed aligned, and partly because of desire. Yes, in addition to being an Apple fanboy I have a Beatles fanboy card lying around here somewhere.
I read a few posts saying “who cares” about Beatles on iTunes — well, even a non-fan should realize the biggest reason why this is important: Beatles on iTunes would legitimize the medium of music downloads.
Meaning: it’s ridiculous that the arguably greatest band in pop music in history isn’t available for download. Imagine visiting visit Netflix and finding some agreed-upon movie classic like Gone With The Wind or Star Wars wasn’t yet out on DVD. It would be pathetic and so it is with no Sgt. Pepper in Apple’s library. I’m Down.
But the lack of Beatles on iTunes has now become personally annoying. I just put in an order for the Beatles Stereo Box Set on Amazon. The ship date is (sit down, please): the first week of October. (Tell Me Why)?
Since I have to wait this Long, Long, Long, it sure would be nice to fire up iTunes and buy a few choice tracks to tide me over until the physical media shows up. True, it’s silly that I’d pay double (well, triple since I already own all the CDs) for decades-old music, but I’m ready and willing to hand good money over, here, just to enjoy some remastered Beatles right now.
And I can’t. Free money, turned away. Help.
At this point, it’s only my own pathetic conscience that keeps me on the straight and narrow. Common sense dictates firing up the old BitTorrent. All the tracks, Free As A Bird.
You Never Give Me Your Money, indeed.
You have read some right things that “who cares” about Beatles on iTunes – well, even a non-fan should realize the biggest reason why this is important: Beatles on iTunes would legitimize the medium of music downloads.
I would have been shocked if they had announced the Beatles on iTunes on the same day as all the reissues come out. For every person like you that would be buying a handful of choice tracks while waiting for their box set to arrive, there would probably be tens or hundreds who would buy a couple of tracks INSTEAD OF buying the albums or box set. There’s no reason to cannibalize the market for the new albums. Plus, if there is any band where you should have to listen to albums in their entirety, it’s the Beatles.