After hyping the arrival of something “that you’ll never forget” on iTunes, Apple on Tuesday released the entire Beatles catalog. The thing is, not many people seem to care.
[ad#Google Adsense 300×250 in story]The Beatles are undoubtedly one of the great bands to ever record music. They have influenced most of the greatest songwriters of our time, from all genres of music, and continue to sell music, 40 years after they broke up.
Personally, John Lennon is one of my favorite songwriters and singers. That will never change, no matter what type of music I listen to or who the new big band is.
If this was 2005 and the Beatles came out on iTunes, I’d be so excited. But it’s 2010 and we’ve been through so many false starts about the band coming to iTunes, it’s kind of anti-climatic.
I have the Beatles material on album, cassette and CD. It’s not that I need them from iTunes to complete my collection.
When Apple hyped the release on Monday everyone thought it had to be something more than the Beatles because we’ve known about that drama for years. Speculation of a streaming service, subscriptions and cloud storage soared, but none of it was true.
I guess most people expected more because Apple doesn’t hype anything. They hardly hype the release of an iPhone or iPad, products that change the markets we live in today.
So, when Apple decided to hype the Beatles on their homepage, people reached for the sky and thought that if Apple was hyping it, this must be huge, game changing news.
It wasn’t.
I’m happy the Beatles are on iTunes. I probably won’t buy any of it because I don’t need it four times, but I’m sure it will be among the top sellers on iTunes.
I can’t wait to see what Apple does when AC/DC comes to iTunes.
The thing is, now my kids will download it.
My kids have it.
Nope, don’t care at all. It’s anti-climatic.
Here’s a thought. Apple chose to announce the Beatles catalog by inviting everyone in the world to hit their home page at 10 AM EST this morning.
Maybe the real announcement was “the new data center is up and running”.
This is a big deal, even if not everyone agrees it is.
As I commented on the other post, it’s all about generating traffic to the iTMS for the holidays. As far as that goal goes, this is a big marketing win. Even more so as the ads permeate television and internet sources through the holiday season.
It isn’t exactly a day I’ll already remember.
I have most of the Beatles on CD, but it’s of lower quality and I can’t find it. I’ll probably start picking these up.
So I’m pleased, and I do care, just not as much as the hype engine probably wants me to.
err, always remember rather. I just woke up. 🙂
If they start offering Beatles movies and music videos in HD, my wallet will fly open with gleeful abandon. Until then, I’ve got it all.
I would say that it is coup because it is only legal place to download Beatles music. However, I like most fans, have already ripped Beatle CDs into iTunes.
I must say I am surprised that this was only iTunes announcement today.
I love how 24 hours notice on a single web page is “hyping it to the sky”. Media, meet Reality. Reality, this is the Media. Try not to laugh.
Anti-climactic, (sorry, I know some people are anti-climate as well).
This announcement can be a big deal to some, similarly if they released the entire collection of Elvis, or Michael Jackson.
It just shows “The Beatles” aren’t as big as they used to be.
It’s a big accomplishment & bloody high time that it happened.
Most of all, the war between Apple & the Apple label is once & for all, finally over!
So Yoko finally ran out of cash?
How could anyone even remotely interested in the Beatles not already have their songs?
I have the Beatles on American vinyl I bought when I was a kid, British vinyl I bought when I learned better, CD, mono box set, and stereo box set. I’m not particularly excited that I can now buy it in a compressed digital format.
And that’s the thing I don’t understand about this particular promotion. Passionate Beatles fans like me don’t care because we already own it. People who don’t like the Beatles don’t give a damn to begin with. And people in between may buy some songs but it hardly qualifies as a day they’ll never forget. It seems like the sole target demographic of this marketing campaign was Steve Jobs.
But I’m not selling my Apple stock over it. 🙂
The trouble is the hype. It only spins speculation into high gear, and can only disappoint. I still am upset that TiVo hyped their spring announcement which only introduced a mildly upgraded TiVo Premiere.
Personally, I’m not a big Beatles fan. I own one album (on vinyl), the White Album. For artists that I really like, I’ve already purchased their music on CD, and imported it at a bit-level that I feel appropriate. Music like the whole Led Zeppelin catalog.
Too many old farts in this discussion. If you put something in front of kids today as cool, they will come. The music itself stands the test of time. There are a couple of generations of kids that have never heard the Fab Four. The tunes don’t get much play time these days, even on golden oldie stations. You don’t need to be a vinylphile to appreciate good music. Somewhere in a cornfield…, Starbucks…,
Nope, not an old fart.
“If you put something in front of kids today as cool, they will come.”
Spoken like an old…never mind.
I think this means more than we know. I think it means that Steve Jobs is not feeling well. And this has been one of his dreams. This is the day he fulfilled something that has been on his mind for many years. And now, maybe, though we hope not, it may mean that he won’t be around for long…maybe just not at Apple. Maybe this is his final plume in his hat. I hope not, but I can’t think of any other reason why to make such a big deal about something that is incidental.
Not to beat a dead horse, but it’s really about generating traffic to iTMS for the holidays. That’s it. It’s a retail sales trick. There will be ads featuring the Beatles, but these ads will not be to sell the Beatles as much as to sell iTMS as a place to get music.
Believe it or not, there are still many people who do not get their music from iTMS. Apple wants to attract them this holiday season. They’re using the Beatles brand to do it. One could argue whether this is an effective marketing ploy. But it doesn’t mean much more than that.
CP – I didn’t mention it on the other post but I believe you’re absolutely right about marketing this over a holiday period.
When they get their hands back on Zappa’s tracks I would feel happier about the world.
But it is definitely pre-holiday PR push specifically for those consumers thinking of buying alternatives to Apple products. And both sides are happy with the profile lift.
Can’t say I give two hoots about this. As others have said here and elsewhere, anyone that interested in the Beatles has surely already got everything from one source or another?
It *might* have been interesting or note-worthy once, but the actions of the various parties involved that have caused the whole sorry episode to drag out far longer than the undoubted greatness of the music ever warranted, has reduced my reaction to, at best, “meh”.
Silly greedy people should have sorted this out a long time ago. Now go away.
“But do we care?” No, “we” may not but, 15 of the Top 50 albums on the iTMS are from the Beatles including the $150 box set at #11. Lots of folks care.
Yeah, I’d say that settles it.