Tomorrow is 'Beatles Day' but iTunes fans could be disappointed
Ladies and GentlemanThe Beatles. With tomorrow being the aptly titled "Beatles Day," campaigned hard for months now only a few hours away, The Beatles could once again take over.
Tomorrow, The Beatles' entire catalog, remastered, will be released to the public for the first time in 20 years. There will be box sets both in mono and stereo, as well as sale of CDs individually. Also, a new generation of gamers will be introduced to The Beatles in the form of "The Beatles: Rock Band" to be released tomorrow on all gaming consoles.
Unfortunately, The Beatles are one of the few bands still not available in digital download format, and as far as is known, they will not be released on iTunes. Merchants such as Best Buy, FYE view this as a good idea for them because it will get consumers back into the stores to buy CDs.
The Beatles have fared very well even if not joining the digital download format. According to Reuters.com, "despite its absence from iTunes, now the top U.S. music retailer, The Beatles' 2000 hits collection '1' is the best-selling album of the decade. While the Cirque du Soleil-related 'Love' album has sold nearly 2 million copies and certain individual catalog titles like 'Rubber Soul' and 'The Beatles' (The White Album) have sold more than 1 million each since the start of the new millennium, according to SoundScan."
Though EMI and Apple have been in talks for quite a while to release their catalog digitally on iTunes, no official announcement has been made.
As reported on LATimes.com, "EMI still hasn't reached a deal for making the group's recordings available for legal download, although there is some speculation that Apple Inc.'s annual news conference, scheduled for tomorrow in San Francisco, might include an update on the prospect for the Beatles' future with iTunes."