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The Beatles On iTunes

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the help-i-need-some-money dept.

Yesterday Apple put a big old teaser up on their homepage for an unknown announcement to occur today. Speculation ran rampant from the delayed iOS 4.2, to iTunes Streaming to a release of the Beatles catalog on the iTunes store. Well, it was the latter. They have 13 albums on the store now, and a $150 box set. So here's hoping that we get that iPad multitasking yet this November.

9 of 551 comments (clear)

  1. White Album by Hatta · · Score: 5, Funny

    Oh, so now I've got to buy the White Album *again*?

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    1. Re:White Album by mcgrew · · Score: 5, Funny

      Back in the USSR, the White Album buys YOU!

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  2. Good, but overrated products by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    In a way, Apple and The Beatles are very similar. Both were pioneers in their industries. Both had throngs of loyal fans willing to do anything for them. Both are scarcely more than a thin veneer over the status quo.

    It's a bit poetic that these two entities which have been at each other's throats over who has the right to call themselves a fruit now are hand in hand making money off the panting masses.

    Apple's done it again.

    1. Re:Good, but overrated products by gad_zuki! · · Score: 5, Insightful

      >Both are scarcely more than a thin veneer over the status quo.

      Oh, I wouldn't say that about the Beatles. If you look at the Beatles peers when they were active you'll see that they weren't just "white plastic on OEM crap." Lets skip past their early stuff which is admittingly cookie cutter to Rubber Soul's release in 1965. The Billboard top 100 had acts like Sonny and Cher and songs like "Wooley Bully." Or when the Beatles released Revolver in 1966, the charts were leading with stuff like the Mamas and Papas. Sgt Peppers was released in 1967 when the Billboards top song was stuff like I'm A Believer by the Monkees. Its weird to even think of them as competing peers considering how far and away Sgt Peppers is from anything mainstream release.

      I think the Beatles really earned their reputation as game changers. They're one of the first rock bands to really begin exploring outside the mainstream, challenge the status quo, and succeeding at this without alienating listeners. Its odd to think that by 1969 they were pretty much done, but if you listen to a lot of the music from the 1970s you'll hear quite a bit of Beatles influence. I think they really wrote the template on how to make rock music that isn't just disposable catchy hits and could be something closer to fine art than just music to dance/get high/get laid to.

  3. Cheaper to buy CDs by LordKronos · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Meanwhile, the CD box set is selling for $130 on amazon (and I thought I read recently someone was offering it for around $100). I thought downloads were supposed to be cheaper than the physical CDs.

    1. Re:Cheaper to buy CDs by onion2k · · Score: 5, Funny

      I'm not a Mozart guy at all. I'm under 250 years old.

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  4. Re:If you don't already.... by Raumkraut · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Meh. The Beatles are overrated.

  5. Re:If you don't already.... by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 5, Funny

    That's not really true, though. Every generation has its superstars.

    The Beatles are just your grandpa's Justin Bieber.

  6. Re:Or you can download them for free by delinear · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Besides, they broke up 40 years ago, most of this stuff was recorded before a lot of the people posting here were even born. This is the kind of stuff that should be in the public domain, if we didn't have ridiculous copyright periods that perpetuate the right to make money from the same content ad infinitum. People who rush out to buy this stuff again just give ammo to the labels demanding ever longer copyrights.