Prepare for digital music from the Beatles -- but not on iTunes
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.)
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
AppleZilla said 2:40PM on 11-04-2009
As a huge Beatles fan, I can comfortably say that the suits that run Apple Corps are a bunch of tools.
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Galley said 2:40PM on 11-04-2009
My Stereo Box Set cost less than $170 shipped from Amazon. They even came with their own backup disc.
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michaelbushnell said 2:41PM on 11-04-2009
Yep, was just about to post this same thing. Buy the box set and then you can rip it into whatever format you want. Did I mention that you'll save over $100 by doing this?
MacGuffin said 5:50PM on 11-04-2009
My Stereo Box Set cost less than $0 downloaded from [redacted] . . . five days before the official release. The Mono Box Set cost me $0, too.
I look forward to getting my hands on the official FLAC and MP3s, too.
NoAndThen said 7:03PM on 11-04-2009
MacGuffin, No one cares you know how to use torrents. I'm pretty sure we all know we could do that.
Seriously though, what "fan" that's hardcore enough (and apparently really, really freaking dumb) to pay $280 for MP3 FILES?! Seriously, dipshits. That's who. It's a disgrace that they only give the the stereo tracks in flac, though it's nice to see corporate support for FLAC in distro channels, as dumb as they may be.
Corporate douche's really need to start a private forum to propose ideas to. It's free, damn accurate (if at times eccentric) market research.. there are just two many things that are released to thoughts of "WTF were they thinking?"
End rant.
Steve said 2:47PM on 11-04-2009
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.
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greg said 2:50PM on 11-04-2009
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.
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Wheels said 3:09PM on 11-04-2009
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.
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Hal said 4:50PM on 11-04-2009
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.
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tabaks said 8:33AM on 11-05-2009
If the fans live long enough to listen to the music they bought...again. Even I will soon be living in the brown wooden submarine.
Joe Mac Stevens said 4:52PM on 11-04-2009
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.
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Stucco said 6:05PM on 11-04-2009
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.
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jmg_NX21 said 6:26PM on 11-04-2009
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...
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Fred said 9:20PM on 11-04-2009
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.
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Samuel said 9:43PM on 11-04-2009
Digitally remastered, what into 300kbps ... erm lossless is the way to go.
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tony said 3:52AM on 11-05-2009
What we all need is 24bit/96kHz FLAC on iTunes
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