Beatles on iTunes. So what?

Beatles on iTunes
Beatles on iTunes: meh

Do you remember where you were when Apple made its world changing, unforgettable Beatles announcement? I was right here, on this chair, in front of this computer, making this face: meh.

I suspect you were doing something similar.

To most of us, the arrival of The Beatles on iTunes is as exciting as the news that Andrex has switched its bog roll colour from white to Winter White.

It's something that simply doesn't matter. *That* was the announcement US Apple fans got up early for? No streaming iTunes, TV rentals or mind-brain interface? Old guys' music is now available in a shop?

Part of it is The Beatles themselves. I'd agree that they were the most important band of all time, but the kids don't care: it's old people's music, as much a part of young people's lives as whittling, spats or the Black Death. Even Britpop, which briefly made The Fab Four cool again, was a very, very long time ago.

Already owned

The trouble with old people's music is that old people already have it. If you're a fan you'll already have the albums on vinyl, or CD, or reissued CD, or remastered CD, or reissued remastered reissued best of compilation box set volume three.

There hasn't exactly been a shortage of Beatles products over the last few decades - and almost all of it is available more cheaply on CD than it is on iTunes today.

And then, of course, there are the torrents. If I had a penny for every person currently seeding the Beatles' entire discography or one of their best-ofs, I could afford to graft a badger to my head just like Paul McCartney appears to have done.

I find it hard to believe that anyone has spent the last decade desperately waiting for the Beatles to hit iTunes, and I shudder to think how much money has been lost to the torrents and P2P nets while Apple (Corp) and Apple (computer) have bickered.

Despite all of that, I can't stop thinking that Apple's iTunes announcement was still pretty brilliant.

The hyperbolic teaser demonstrated genuine excitement, and its placement on Apple.com shows that to at least one person, The Beatles on iTunes is a really big deal. That person, of course, is Steve Jobs.

In a business where shareholder returns matter more than songs, it's nice to know that the CEO of the world's biggest music retailer actually cares about - and still gets excited about - music.

TOPICS
Carrie Marshall
Contributor

Writer, broadcaster, musician and kitchen gadget obsessive Carrie Marshall has been writing about tech since 1998, contributing sage advice and odd opinions to all kinds of magazines and websites as well as writing more than a dozen books. Her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, is on sale now and her next book, about pop music, is out in 2025. She is the singer in Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind.

Latest in Audio Streaming
An Apple Music pink/pixellated poster advertising DJ with Apple Music
DJ with Apple Music lands, allowing subscribers to build and mix DJ sets directly from its +100 million-song catalog
Spotify's new Concerts Near You playlist feature showing a list of songs by local touring artists
Spotify has launched a new Concerts Near You playlist, making it easier for you to see if your favorite artists are performing in your area
Beatles' Abbey Road streaming on Qobuz, on a smartphone
Qobuz reveals how much it really pays per stream, and I want to see more of this transparency to help us spend money more ethically
A close up of the new web version of Apple Music Classical
Apple Music Classical is now available on the web, but its Mac app is still nowhere in sight
Spotify AI DJ on a phone being held in a hand
Hey AI DJ, put a record on: Spotify seems set to let you speak to its AI DJ
Lady Gaga sat at a press conference table for Spotify's fan event
Spotify’s press conference with Lady Gaga shows that music streaming services really do think about the fans after all
Latest in News
DeepSeek
DeepSeek’s new AI is smarter, faster, cheaper, and a real rival to OpenAI's models
Open AI
OpenAI unveiled image generation for 4o – here's everything you need to know about the ChatGPT upgrade
Apple WWDC 2025 announced
Apple just announced WWDC 2025 starts on June 9, and we'll all be watching the opening event
Hornet swings their weapon in mid air
Hollow Knight: Silksong gets new Steam metadata changes, convincing everyone and their mother that the game is finally releasing this year
OpenAI logo
OpenAI just launched a free ChatGPT bible that will help you master the AI chatbot and Sora
An aerial view of an Instavolt Superhub for charging electric vehicles
Forget gas stations – EV charging Superhubs are using solar power to solve the most annoying thing about electric motoring