Just another day (1 Viewer)

[Ted Todorov]

Live at the Washington Coliseum, a 41-minute video, is exclusive to the all-inclusive Beatles Box Set and can be streamed in its entirety at apple.com.

I just watched the entire thing -- it is really quite amazing. Too bad you can't buy it individually, but the stream is really worth seeing.

Obviously for most serious Beatles fans this is a non-event. I have a box of the British LPs from the early '80s, plus all the original CDs plus both the Stereo and Mono boxes, plus the the Anthology CDs & DVDs, plus Live at the BBC, plus all the movie DVDs. I guess I'm missing some live stuff (at the Hollywood Bowl?) But they aren't selling it on iTunes, so...

But this is hardly the point -- a new generation is out there that doesn't buy CDs -- they download all their music, and if it isn't available legally they get it "free". This is for their benefit. And over the years, there will be a lot fewer of us and a lot more of them -- thus having The Beatles on iTunes will matter more as the years go by.

It is also, paradoxically a big event for people who don't much like The Beatles but want this or that individual song. It has probably been over 40 years since Beatle singles were available for sale.

And yes, I would love for Apple to start selling all their music in Apple Lossless -- unfortunately that probably requires many more rounds of negotiations with the retrograde recording industry.

 

[Craig S]

Originally Posted by DaveF
...
As for AC/DC -- Apple has long allowed album-only sales. That wouldn't be a hold up on their music.

Well, according to this article that's the reason Brian Johnson gave for keeping their stuff off of iTunes - althrough the article doesn't give an exact quote. Johnson just seems to have some nebulous, ill-defined problem with music on the internet in general.

 

[Sam Posten]

Which makes it REALLY easy for a whole lot of people to justify pirating it. Which may be a problem for the Beatles too, they may have lost billions in sales to people who found a way to rip a friends copy of a CD or other more questionable means to get digital copies. Not that they are hurting for the cash....

 

[Sam Posten]

TOP, known for music curation as much as photography, says the quality sucks:
http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/2010/11/ot-beatles-on-itunes.html

 

[Steve Tannehill]

That's why my rips of the CD's are Apple Lossless.

 

[Craig S]

I've read this deal is exclusive to Apple through at least early 2011. So Amazon is fighting back by reducing the prices of the remastered CDs to the 50-60% level. The stereo box set is $129. Individual albums are $7.99. The White Album & Past Masters are $11.99, and the Red and Blue compilations are $12.99. These are the lowest prices I can remember seeing for Beatles' CDs all the way back to the 1987 releases.

 

[Ted Todorov]

Competition is great for consumers!

So was/is this entire Washington Coliseum concert available in any other form besides that iTunes box set and the stream? -- they had three songs from it on the Beatles First U.S. Visit documentary (which is very highly recommended).

 

[Sam Posten]

Originally Posted by Craig S
I've read this deal is exclusive to Apple through at least early 2011. So Amazon is fighting back by reducing the prices of the remastered CDs to the 50-60% level. The stereo box set is $129. Individual albums are $7.99. The White Album & Past Masters are $11.99, and the Red and Blue compilations are $12.99. These are the lowest prices I can remember seeing for Beatles' CDs all the way back to the 1987 releases.

Is there anything in the $150 Apple box set that isn't in the $129 stereo CD set?

 

[mattCR]

The ability to own the concert video... that's an Apple exclusive; but you can stream it free right now, so... and I'm not sure it's worth $20. Seriously, I'm just wishing for Beatles SACD or the like, rather then reviewed low-quality compressed copies.

 

[Sam Posten]

Guess I just found my Christmas Present For Myself then.

 

[Sam Posten]

The Mono box is $130 now too:
http://www.amazon.com/Beatles-Mono-Box-Set/dp/B002BSHXJA/ref=ntt_mus_ep_dpt_12

Stereo:
http://www.amazon.com/Beatles-Stereo-Box-Set/dp/B002BSHWUU/ref=ntt_mus_ep_dpt_3

You can buy both together for the MSRP of just one!

 

[Steve Tannehill]

And the Beatles Apple USB stick is $268. FLAC 24bit/44.1Khz recordings of the 13 original stereo albums.

 

[Sam Posten]

Back in Black!
http://www.macrumors.com/2012/11/19/acdc-finally-available-on-itunes/
https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/ac-dc/id5040714
I'm in for the mega collection. I have waited soooo long for this!
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/11/acdc-for-those-about-to-rock-we-salute-itunes/