EMI global catalogue chief Ernesto Schmitt confirms to the Financial Times what we suspected at the Rolling Stones-inflected iPod event: The Beatles won’t be making their grand iTunes Music Store debut tomorrow.
“Conversations between Apple and EMI are ongoing and we look forward to the day when we can make the music available digitally. But it’s not tomorrow.”
Looks like The Beatles Rock Band is still gonna the only (legit) way to snag The Beatles catalogue completely digitally, at least until someone kicks EMI in the arse hard enough to make it happen. [FT]
matt
Wednesday, September 9, 2009 at 9:10 AMwell what would be the point of re-mastering them if you then went and bought them as mp3s…
can you buy any of the Beatles’ releases digitally?
If you can’t, you could always venture outside and just buy the CDs. rip them with one click in media player…
I wonder if this is caused by the constant war between apple and the Beatles’ management regarding the apple trademark?
James C
Wednesday, September 9, 2009 at 12:58 PM@matt, I don’t think it’s anything to do with the trademark battle; that ended in a settlement in 2007.
I think it’s just more to do with the hesitation that the Beatles have had to move into _any_ digital format.
PinballLes
Wednesday, September 9, 2009 at 1:37 PMI’m pretty sure CD’s are digital. Which would mean that the Beatles have moved into digital formats.
Matt Jones
Thursday, September 10, 2009 at 7:58 AMEMI is doubtless waiting for the remaining Beatles to die, so they can get a bigger chunk of the profits. Never overestimate the power of corporate greed!