Are the Beatles clinging to CD release for corporate spite?
So tomorrow’s iPod-centric Apple event won’t be including the Beatles coming to iTunes on the day the remastered CDs come to retail. Apple Corps (The Beatles) has fueded with Apple Inc (formerly Apple Computer), so you have to wonder if this is a continuation of that. I would think this isn’t some silly way of preventing Apple Inc from making money on Beatles music, considering the post-Beatles music by John, Paul, George and Ringo is available on iTunes. Do the artists (and their estates) have less control over their single-career music than Apple Corps does of Beatles music?
This music will still wind up in iPods/iPhones when CD buyers Import to iTunes. This seems like a weird sort of timing. Are the Beatles (and estates) looking for more money from an iTunes distribution deal than Apple Inc was willing to give? Is it the opposite, and there’s actually a super secret digital exclusivity deal with Apple Inc? It’s not like Amazon’s MP3 store announced that it’s digitally distributing this music tomorrow.
Or maybe the Rock Band deal has a timed exclusivity? I still don’t see how an MP3 competes with a Rock Band download. People already buy music licenses for different devices twice (or for cell phone ring tones, THRICE).
If Apple Inc doesn’t announce Beatles on iTunes tomorrow, it’s a weird bit of timing, and will probably result in whispered conversation wondering why that isn’t happening, and that hasn’t worked out so well for AT&T’s reputation, with them delaying MMS and tethering on iPhone.
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/09/08/despite_date_beatles_not_coming_to_itunes_wednesday_report.html
UPDATE: Just a weird bit of timing, I suppose.
