Beatles Going to Apple

[lennon211]

It's being reported now that the Beatles' catalog is now going to be offered on iTunes to the tune of $400 mil. McCartney has apparently approved the deal and stands to profit handsomely as do Starr and the estates of Lennon and Harrison among others. There aren't many other details being offered at this time, so there's no telling if any of these songs are going to be the remastered editions that were reported on in Rolling Stone in '07 or '06. I take this as a good sign though. What I do wonder is how the songs will be packaged and if they will be available separately or if they are going to be done as albums only.

http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.a ... with-apple

[lyle_from_minneapolis]

Remastered would be appealing to me, for sure. But as far as that deal goes, it hardly matters. That investment will be recouped. If each song is worth a dollar...and they have the entire catalog...wow.

Hope they have enough bandwidth for the first assault.

[shamustwin]

How much do Michael J ckson and S ny make?

[scotty]

S H T L ADS

[lennon211]

Hopefully in the case of the mummy (M.J.), he'll barely make enough to make a payment on his legal debts.

[wj350]

Is the movie release of "Let It Be" anywhere nearer on the horizon? I don't get all the hoopla over the iTunes thing--I can upload my CDs.

[lennon211]

Is the movie release of "Let It Be" anywhere nearer on the horizon? I don't get all the hoopla over the iTunes thing--I can upload my CDs.

Yeah...that's the same thing that I did. I think that this could be a big deal, if it's true, in that it will open up the Beatles music to a number of people that would buy the songs ala carte.

[rickboy88]

I was able to find this after lots of google searches (from one year ago):

http://podophile.com/2007/02/12/apple-c ... to-itunes/

"Let it be" was supposed to come out by 2003. I've read that "Let it be - Naked" was to just be a companion CD to the DVD. If Yoko is involved, maybe she doesn't like how she comes off? Who knows. I saw the Stones' "Rock & Roll Circus" a couple of years ago, and one can see why Jagger kept it under wraps for so long. I thought the Who really outplayed them, just from energy alone.

[lyle_from_minneapolis]

No one comes off well in "Let It Be"... They all come off depressed and bitchy. I don't know how any of them feel, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was held back another decade or so. They all know it's an historical document, and they all know it will be released someday...but I'll bet none of them are in a big hurry to deal with it once again. It must be the biggest drag of their lives.

[rickboy88]

Agreed. Paul and George have an argument and George walks out, etc., etc. I've also noticed that with Apple Corps everything seems to take longer than one would expect. Here is the text of that one year old article. My friend in Vegas had a tough time viewing the link on his Apple.The stuff about Yoko appears to be only speculation:

-----------

Apple Corps Confirms Beatles Coming To iTunes

February 12th, 2007 by Podophile

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Beatles As much as I dislike linking to an article on Foxnews.com, it’s only fair when they come up with a good iTunes scoop. Reporter Roger Friedman claims Apple Corps executive Neil Aspinall confirmed to him that the Beatles core catalog has been remastered and is ready to release via online music stores.

“All 13 core albums, the ones originally released on CD in 1987, have been remastered,” Aspinall told me. “At some point they will all be released, probably at the same time.”

Aspinal goes on to say that no one online music store will have an exclusive deal to distribute the Beatles collection. Aspinall says that when the Beatles songs do get put on the Internet officially, it will be on all the services, not just one. So all the Beatles songs will be found on iTunes, Rhapsody, etc.

This comment conflicts with the rumor that Apple plans to release a special “Beatles edition” iPod in conjunction with an exclusive deal with the iTunes Store… but Steve Jobs is such a big Beatles fan, I guess anything is still possible.

No real word on the digital release of Beatles movies, other than to say Let It Be continues to be problematic, and there’s no sign of even a DVD on the horizon.

"The film was so controversial when it first came out. When we got halfway through restoring it, we looked at the outtakes and realized: This stuff is still controversial. It raised a lot of old issues."

Which I take to be code for “Yoko still doesn’t like the way she’s portrayed in the film and will never let it be re-released.” Let’s hope that when Sean’s in charge of the estate, he’ll have a different view on the subject.

Could the timing of these statements mean the Beatles will show up on iTunes tomorrow? Could there be any better Valentine’s Day download than, say, the Love soundtrack from the Beatles-themed Cirque du Soleil show? I guess we’ll know soon enough.

[simer4001]

$600 million! Damn!

[revolver323]

I picked up a bootleg copy of "Let It Be" last year. I hadn't seen it since it's theatrical release and found viewing it to be a rather melancholy experience. Part of this was, I'm sure, because I've aged 40 years and it was hard to admit it that none of us is young anymore. However, I was struck by how lousy the camera work is overall. Very jumpy. And the lighting is terrible. There were a few great moments -- "Besame Mucho" being one of them -- and of course the rooftop concert was great. But anyone who has been in a band knows that the kind of disagreement George & Paul were having in the film is commonplace, and rather mild. I've had fistfights breakout onstage and once was hit in the eye by a drum stick thrown by my drummer, who thought I was playing bass too loud. Ah .. the good old days of amateur rock. So, if you're waiting for "Let It Be," let your lust be tempered.

[lennon211]

Along with Let It Be, it would be great to have an authorized edition of the Beatles' promo clips and the '65 Shea Stadium Concert. Those would be great to see in their entirety someday. Let It Be is a rather depressing glimpse at the Beatles when they were not getting on to say the least.

[gregga41]

+1 for an authorized release of Shea Stadium 65.
I have a reasonably good quality "bootleg" of this concert, but would love one with the quality shown on the Anthology DVD!!

[lyle_from_minneapolis]

Part of the depressing feel of "Let It Be' is due to the washed out, almost colorless feel to the film. Ah, London in January...such a beautiful time to watch a great band slowly disintegrate...