Beatles May Opt for Own Store to Sell Digital Tracks (1 Viewer)

[Ockeghem]

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 19, 2009 - 9:42am.

London - The Beatles may opt to offer their long-anticipated digital catalog on their own digital music store rather than on iTunes (NASD: AAPL) or other established retailers, citing a desire to set their own pricing for downloads, the Guardian reported.

"[Apple CEO Steve] Jobs says that a download is worth 99 cents, and we disagree," thirty-year-old Dhani Harrison, a son of the late George Harrison who works at the band's label, Apple Corps, told Blender Magazine.

"We're losing money every day," Harrison told the Guardian.

"So what do you do? You have to have your own delivery system, or you have to do a good deal with Steve Jobs."

Harrison claims to be the driving force behind Apple Corps' decision to license the Beatles' tracks for use in the forthcoming music video game "The Beatles: Rock Band."

Report: Beatles May Opt for Own Store to Sell Digital Tracks | Digital Media Wire

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The comment "We're losing money every day" reminded me eerily of Lennon's remark I heard many years ago (I think it was on The Compleat Beatles) regarding Apple Corps. I believe that that amount was quoted somewhere in the neighborhood of $50,000 per week. I recall the line being something like "We're losing $50,000 [a week]. If this continues, we'll be broke in six months."

My good friend Pyegar believed it (Apple Corps) to be a fun experiment, but "... that it made little business sense at the time (or at any time). Basically, it was a "merry pranksters"-style tax dodge, within some naive hope of encouraging undiscovered artists. They did help a few people who went on to musical and visual arts careers, however."

 

[Philip Hamm]

Today's apple is nothing like that old apple. The money they are "losing every day" is opportunity cost. They were late to the CD game also.

Also, I think the Beatles should start their own store. Lots of established acts have sold their own music online very successfully. It's easy enough to do, and it's not like they have to worry about people not buying it because it's not on Itunes. Build something like the Amazon dot com download application which inserts the songs into Itunes automatically. It would be foolish for them to make a deal with any distributer, especially Apple computer.

 

[Albert_M]

I don't think that they were late to cds. They wanted more saturation of the cd into the market first, just like some movies waited to come out on DVD and now for Bluray.

However, they are foolish to think that the mp3 generation will pay much more than a dollar for a song.

I don't care what they do because I think the digital only kind of purchase is assinine, but I am a minority.

 

[WillG]

Yeah, the way Dhani said that seems a bit greedy, (although I do thank him for pusing to get a Beatles Rock Band game.)

I know they're The Beatles and all but when the (pretty much) standard for a song download is $.99 why should they demand that people pay more for their stuff? I guess that's their privledge, but I could see people not liking it.

 

[Ockeghem]

Albert,

If it is a minority, I too am part of it, for philosophical reasons.

 

[Ockeghem]

Will,

For my own part, the quality of their music is so much greater (and as a result, far more valuable to me) than just about any other similar genre of music post 1962 that I am willing to spend extra to obtain it. Then again, I now own around 275 LPs and over 150 CDs of their music, so I really don't need too much else these days.*

*Although I will admit that I would love to acquire a 1958 acetate of their rendition of That'll Be the Day.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

What's wrong with CDs?

(Yes, I know what you meant, and I agree.)

 

[Zack Gibbs]

All I want to know is what the remasters sound like.

 

[Lee Scoggins]

Dhani is a greedy bastard. Jobs is right on the 99 cent mark.

Suddenly I see why the Beatles CDs sell for $19 everywhere.

 

[AnthonyC]

Ditto. I think Dhani (and the Beatles' Apple in general) are in for a rude awakening when it comes to digital downloads. Even ignoring the fact that they're way behind everyone else in that department, the fact of the matter is, 99% of people who want that material already have it in some form or another. And when it comes to the remasters, I can't imagine most hardcore fans settling for a non-physical release.

 

[Philip Klein]

Agree 100%
I want the remasters, could care less about digital downloads, It's The Beatles