There is little disputing that The Beatles are one of the biggest selling music artists of all time. So for fans stepping into the digital age, the lack of a Beatles catalog has long been frustrating, leading to widespread piracy of audio CDs. The reason, of course, was the long standing professional dispute between The Beatles record company, Apple Corp, and Apple Inc, who owns iTunes. When the companies reached a settlement in 2007, fans of The Beatles hoped it would mean that the Beatle’s albums would finally go digital and be available in MP3 and MP4 format, but for three years their hopes went unrequited.
In November of 2010, that finally changed with the announcement that the full catalog from The Beatles would be available through the Apple iTunes music service. Fans everywhere rejoiced. Overall, the move was considered beneficial to everyone involved. Fans are certainly pleased, but Apple and the record company both also stand to make significant profits. With fully digital albums costing 12.99 USD each, there will certainly be plenty of profits to share.
In an era where digital music is quickly becoming the gold standard, it presents the record company with a new way to expand profit ratios on the Beatles catalog, as fans re-buy their favorites in the latest format – yet again. It also offers Apple not only the chance to make more money, but also to prove to other holdouts that there is big money to be made by going digital and that it doesn’t mean selling out.
No matter what end of the spectrum you are on regarding your thoughts on digital music, launching the full Beatles catalog on iTunes is proving to be a smart move, and it is certainly one that true fans of The Beatles have been hoping for since iTunes hit the market.
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