Skip to Content

Prepare for digital music from the Beatles -- but not on iTunes

by Josh Carr Nov 4th 2009 at 2:30PM

In a limited run of 30,000 units, Apple Corps Ltd. will be releasing the Beatles' remastered catalog for your consumption in a green apple USB device. Unfortunately, I didn't say anything about iTunes in that sentence... It looks like the Apples still can't play nice together, so we're left to dream that one day the Beatles collection will make it to the big download cloud in the sky.

Our sister site, Engadget, reports that these drives are available for pre-order now but will not ship until December 7th in the UK and December 8th in the US for $279.99. The 16GB USB drive will include the Beatles' 14 stereo tracks in FLAC (for the audiophiles in the audience) as well as the rest of their collection in 320 Kbps MP3s. The drive will also include 13 documentaries about the studio albums, expanded liner notes, re-touched album art, and several rare photos.

What does all of this mean? The Beatles' record company basically created a massive iTunes LP without iTunes. According to The Beatles' website, there's a special Flash interface for consumer interaction with the extra content. Some would say that this is just another stepping stone in the road to online distribution... while that may be true, I'm getting tired of all the back-and-forth. I own a good majority of the Beatles albums on CD and have already ripped them into iTunes. I expect that most anyone who really wants these in their iTunes library has already gone through the motions to accomplish that. I could pay the $280 for a USB drive, or buy all of the CDs from Amazon.com for half that price and spend several hours putting them on my computer. Sure, sure, I'm not getting the officially remastered files from the Beatles themselves... but I'm willing to make that sacrifice. Even still, this may be the perfect Holiday gift for the Beatles fanatic in your household. (Honey, I don't want one.)

View Tags

Related Stories

Categories

iTunes Music

In a limited run of 30,000 units, Apple Corps Ltd. will be releasing the Beatles' remastered catalog for your consumption in a green apple...
 

Add a Comment

Sign in »
*0 / 3000 Character Maximum

14 Comments

Filter by:
tony

What we all need is 24bit/96kHz FLAC on iTunes

November 05 2009 at 3:09 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Fred

My wife works at Half-Price Books, and we got most the albums for around $4 a shot. Granted they weren't the uber-spiffy new one, but hell, they sound good. Sorry Apple/Apple Corps.

November 04 2009 at 9:20 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
jmg_NX21

Engadget users predicted this would be on torrent in no time...

Like the Apple concept... HATE the USB & implementation... anything else collectible included?
*posters, limited edition art, autographs?
*prob not...

November 04 2009 at 6:25 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Stucco

Can someone please explain to me what difference it would make to have Beatles music on iTunes? I can't seem to wrap my mind around how this matters, even a little.

November 04 2009 at 6:05 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Joey

Whoever runs the Apple Corp are jackasses. I think a lot of the customers they could have had already downloaded the catalog from some less then legal places that they didn't make a dime from.

November 04 2009 at 4:52 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Hal

This is not about the music but about the collectible. Any Beatles fan already has all the Beatles music that exists. But this is not about the music. Most people who buy these probably won't even open them. They'll be worth more that way.

November 04 2009 at 4:50 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
wheels

If they made the FLAC tracks truly for audiophiles, the tracks would've been in mono. Most Beatlephiles abhor the stereo version of what is available in mono.

November 04 2009 at 3:09 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
greg

How can these idiots at Apple Corps think they'll make more $$ with these than on iTunes? I'm no financial wizard but, I'm thinking with iTunes they stand to make waaaaaay more than with this idiotic gimmick.

Besides, they've just provided a easy way for everyone to share this! Pass it around at the office. Bring it over to your buddies house. Etc; It'll be a torrent in no time flat (just like the box set on CD's). iTunes has a devout bunch of people willing to buy stuff like this. Imagine an iTunes LP version of this? I might even go for that one. This though? Forget it.

November 04 2009 at 2:48 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Steve

While you're getting tired of all this back and forth, I GOT tired of it about two years ago. I have all The Beatles songs on my iPhone I will ever need, and have no intention of buying another copy of any of them ever again. I might have considered the remastered versions, but not after years of idiocy from them.

November 04 2009 at 2:47 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Galley

My Stereo Box Set cost less than $170 shipped from Amazon. They even came with their own backup disc.

November 04 2009 at 2:40 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
3 replies to Galley's comment
Buy an ad here

Hot Apps on TUAW

Tweets

© 2012 AOL Inc. All Rights Reserved.