money.cnn.com — After years of refusing to make the move to MP3, the Beatles may give Steve Jobs' iTunes an exclusive. Fortune has learned that iTunes is close to a deal to bring the Beatles catalog online. Apple Computer is said to be angling to become the exclusive online music store for the Beatles for a limited window of time....
Nov 27, 2006 View in Crawl 4
superkendallNov 27, 2006
A lot of people only have a few songs they like here and there though, and basically want the chance to make up their own "best of" collection vs. buying several since the existing CD's never have quite what you want...It's true that more hardcore Beatles fans are going to be buying whole CD's at once so as not to break up the tracks.I would probably buy one track ("Blackbird") which is not on any CD I own currently. It came on some later CD as it was unreleased before.
superkendallNov 27, 2006
First of all, the rumor is a limited exclusive.But iTunes has no real exclusive on anything, since you can also buy CD's or other media - there is no monopoly, not in a legal sense anyway.All Apple would be treading on is a brick road paved with stacks of Franklins.
aristotle0dudeNov 28, 2006
@kevin45, fmaxwell & bdrydyk: What you are not getting is that those CDs were mastered years ago from old studio masters. I think we should assume that the songs released on iTunes will have been digitally re-mastered before being encoded using the Pro profile of AAC.That is totally different from ripping from old CDs mastered poorly using MP3.
tracydangerNov 28, 2006
@kevinIf you used bittorrent, then why ask the question, "why pay for these again?" It sounds like you didn't in the first place (at least for anything downloaded illegally).
tracydangerNov 28, 2006
I had the thought that's been mentioned by many already, "I've already got 'em on CD, so what?" But, I think there are many, many people that don't currently have Beatles songs that would buy the songs on itunes. I'm sure that would be proved right if they actually do start selling them. Their songs are a great commodity and will do well in any medium. It would be a plus for itunes and the Beatles (although I, myself don't want the DRM on those songs). Even though I myself ripped them from my CDs, it would be short sighted to think that others wouldn't buy on itunes.
halleyscometNov 28, 2006
@flag564 No flag564, a few fanboys said that the Beatles were no big deal. That does NOT mean ALL Apple users thought the same thing.
cleverboyNov 30, 2006
@gwinerreniwg:Listen carefully ALLOFMP3 is illegal. Do yourself a favor. Instead of listening to THEM LIE TO YOU and their desperate attempts to pretend otherwise, actually do some research. People keep losing track of what's already been covered, and its sad. They were illegal in Russia as of September 1st, and illegal in the U.S. as of forever.The thing that bothers me, is that its implied that because a company is saying the right noises, that what they're saying jibes with what we have been told already.1. ROMs has been kicked out of CISAC for not paying artists appropriately. 2. AllOfMp3.com had until September 1st to comply with the new Russian law amendments about paying rights holders what they demand to be paid. They even said they were raising prices to "get there". This amendment was delayed 2 years so that companies like AllOfMp3.com could "catch up". Whoops. 3. Despite notices on their own website about this law, they have instead pretended that "lip service" will be a fair and equitable alternative to paying the artists. I think it is out of sheer bias that people like you systematically ignore the facts on issues like this. I'm an informed reader. Maybe I'm out of line for expecting others to have a certain standard for accuracy and context, but it still concerns me. See item #4.<a class="user" href="http://allofmp3.com/statement.shtml">http://allofmp3.com/statement.shtml</a> CISAC Press Release: "The General Assembly of CISAC decided at its meeting in Seoul on October 2004 to expel Russian organization ROMS from CISAC membership on the grounds that it has been issuing licenses to copyright users without the authority to do so from all relevant copyright owners. CISAC concluded that such actions contravened internationally accepted collective administration principles, to the detriment of the creative community represented by CISAC."<a class="user" href="http://www.cisac.org/web/Content.nsf/Popup?ReadForm&Page=Article&Lang=EN&Alias=">http://www.cisac.org/web/Content.nsf/Popup?ReadForm&Page=Article&Lang=EN&Alias=</a> Web-2005-03-ROMS From ROMs: "According to Section 2 of Clause 47 of the Law of Russian Federation on Copyright and Related Rights, any owner of copyright or related rights, including those who have not concluded an agreement with ROMS, has the right to demand due compensation according to the distribution performed by ROMS."<a class="user" href="http://www.museekster.com/files/press-release%20ROMS.doc">http://www.museekster.com/files/press-release%20ROMS.doc</a> Moreover, as for U.S. laws, whether the U.S. laws governing right of distribution (17 U.S.C. § 106.1) or reproduction (17 U.S.C. § 106.3), both of these laws depend on services like AllofMp3 having valid contracts with the copyright holders, which they do not (those are links, fyi). This application has been successfully (key word here) litigated in U.S. courts as it specifically concerns the download of music in the P2P service bloodbath of the last few years... whether or not one agrees with how it hampers the perfect legitmacy of P2P as a technology.All the precendants have been set over here and over there for why they're illegal. While its ethically dubious to apply to P2P, its clear AllofMp3 is a big warez scheme between two companies... AllOfMp3 and ROMs. Moreover, they're about to be shut down for it.--I'm all for pushing freedom, advancement, etc... but when legitimate services like eMusic are compared to illegitimate services that can't bother with proper English in their names, I think we're all screwed if we're sipping that kool-aid. How much traction is eMusic losing because illegal services suck the air out of the room, and create false expectations? How much leverage have they lost to get attention?Babies and bath water, people. Babies and bath water. This is sad.
morph_ballDec 21, 2006
"Let it be, let it be...Let it be, let it be..."