Are The Beatles on iTunes Tomorrow?

Did Yoko Ono just spoil a big surprise? The widow of John Lennon was quoted by Sky News (as reported by 9to5Mac) as saying that the entire Beatles catalog would be available tomorrow on iTunes, in addition to the re-mastered CD collection, and The Beatles: Rock Band, which may become the top selling video game of all time. The news was quickly muted by Sky, which pulled its story almost immediately. Twitter has blown up with the news, or the rumor, or the slip-up, or the honest mistake. Obviously, if it was planned to be a surprise, Apple nor the other Apple nor EMI would comment on it at this point. The Beatles signed a stupendous $400 million deal with Apple to release the entire breadth of their incomparable music collection several months ago. Part of that arrangement was the re-mastered versions you can pay about $250 for tomorrow on CD. It's the first time the music has been touched since 1987, minus a couple tweaks in the early 1990s. Initially, the catalog wouldn't be available for download until 2010, and the sound is supposed to be rather breathtaking, even though it already sounds better than just about everything from the 1960s. If the iTunes thing is a go tomorrow, then with the re-mastered CDs and Rock Band, that's better than a half-billion-dollar payday for the Fab Four. I doubt it will happen, and believe Ono probably just misspoke. The music is indeed on shelves tomorrow and there is an iTunes distribution on the way. But it wouldn't be like Apple or The Beatles to sneak the most coveted music collection in the world online while everyone else was focused on the game and the CDs. Plus, the CDs would take a hit in total sales if the same product were available for a little less money online. That wouldn't make great business sense, and if we know anything about The Beatles, it's that they have always had good harmonies...I mean business sense. Some people ask what the big deal is about the band from Liverpool, and I feel sorry for them. Their importance to music specifically and pop culture in general just can't be overstated. Nothing was the same after The Beatles. Here's an interesting filter to run this through: In addition to having nearly one-tenth of their catalog hit number one on the Billboard singles chart, outselling every other artist of all time, and essentially providing music's Big Bang - for they inspired nearly every act that followed them in some way, even unconsciously, and made it possible for rock music criticism to establish serious foundations in songcraft, production, and cultural relevance - the entirety of The Beatles' recording history can be contained in the space since U2 released "Beautiful Day" back in 2000. To put it another way: Britney Spears has been around longer than The Beatles were The Beatles. So if tomorrow comes and goes and there's no Abbey Road on iTunes, don't worry. It'll be there soon enough.

Comments

[SEAN]

THE
BEATLES
ARE
THE
BEST
EVER
!!!!!!!!!!!

Their music is LIFE ALTERING!

[Chris]

I hope this is true, but I'm not really counting on it.