« Home | The Howard Stern Effect boosts web traffic for Sir... »
Beatles For Online Sale? Apple Corps Readies Catalogue For Download Availability
The big question in this iPod era: will The Beatles ever make their music available for downloads online? That question may be ready for a huge affirmative answer.
After years of refusing to take part in the Internet music boom, The Beatles may finally sell their songs online.
REUTERS is reporting that the Beatles are getting ready to offer their music via legal digital downloads for the first time, citing a written statement to the High Court in London by former Beatles road manager and Apple Corps Managing Dir. Neil Aspinall that says the songs are being remastered and "I think it would be wrong to offer downloads of the old masters when I am making new masters.... It would be better to wait and try to do them both simultaneously so that you then get the publicity of the new masters and the downloading, rather than just doing it ad hoc." 
A spokesman for Apple Corps confirmed the statement and said that the company is preparing online Beatles offerings with "no firm date on any of this at the moment." The Beatles have yet to offer legal digital downloads of their music; the band and Apple Corps is suing computer maker and iTunes operator Apple over the use of the "Apple" name and logo for iTunes, with a decision pending this month.
Despite being high-profile holdouts (the highest of high-profile acts) from online music availability, The Beatles still delivered sales of $1.1 billion last year. Amazing for a band that broke up thirty-six years ago. Imagine how much they'll sell to load up iPods. The Beatles For Sale.
posted by Unknown @ Thursday, April 13, 2006,
