Anyone fancy buying EMI?
DocMcCoy
"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,913 Posts
It can't be too long now before Guy "Careless" Hands cuts his losses. I know of at least one big deal they're probably going to lose as a result of this.
Anyway, I've got ??20 worth of John Lewis vouchers on it.
Anyway, I've got ??20 worth of John Lewis vouchers on it.
Comments
$600. Final offer.
Apple iTunes, at Long Last, Gets Rights to Beatles
By ETHAN SMITH
Steve Jobs is nearing the end of his long and winding pursuit of the Beatles catalog.
Apple Inc. is preparing to announce that its iTunes Store will soon start carrying music by the Beatles, according to people familiar with the situation, a move that would fill in a glaring gap in the collection of the world's largest music retailer.
The deal resulted from talks that were taking place as recently as last week among executives of Apple, representatives of the Beatles and their record label, EMI Group Ltd,, according to these people. These people cautioned that Apple could change plans at the last minute.
Spokesmen for Apple, EMI and Paul McCartney declined to comment.
Apple on Monday posted a notice on the home page of its iTunes Store that it would make "an exciting announcement" Tuesday morning.
The agreement would represent a watershed in a fraught, decades-long relationship between two of the biggest icons in their respective fields.
The two sides have traded lawsuits since 1978, when the Beatles alleged that the computer maker, then known as Apple Computer, infringed on the band's trademark. That's because the Beatles in 1968 created a wholly owned entity called Apple Corps Ltd., that acted as an arts-promotion company and owned Apple Records. Though EMI retained ownership of the Beatles recordings, the Apple logo was printed on their albums.
Terms of the deal that brought the Beatles music to iTunes could not be learned. EMI has been under financial strain following an ill-timed leveraged buyout by Terra Firma Capital Partners LP in 2007. If the deal generates significant sales, it could delay breaches in the company's loan covenants.
The Fab Four's arrival in the digital age comes late compared to most other major acts', and may generate more symbolism than sales. The group was similarly a latecomer to the CD era, waiting until 1987 to issue their main body of work on the medium that most embraced in the early to mid part of the decade. Their music was held back again until 2009 before remastered CDs were issued with improved sound quality, something for which fans had been clamoring for years.
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Even as recorded-music sales have plummeted, the Beatles have remained one of the most reliable franchises in the business. In 2009, 39 years after breaking up, they sold the third-highest number of albums of any act in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan, with 3.3 million copies sold.
In the past decade, the Beatles sold the second-highest number of albums of any artist (trailing Eminem by 2 million units), and the second-highest number of albums since SoundScan launched in 1991 (Garth Brooks has sold more), according to SoundScan.
Last September the Beatles struck a deal to release a videogame, The Beatles: Rock Band. That title has seen mixed sales.
Even the solo catalogs of the members of the Beatles have become available via iTunes and other online music services for varying lengths of time, prompting headscratching in the music and technology worlds about why the Beatles albums proper still weren't available.
ugh...
"Genuine First issue MP3. Upper Case Gold Boxed Meta Data r@re l@@K
Itunes are selling 256 aac:s - they sound excellent, all things considered.
"the mono lossless sound way better"
With The Beatles remastered CD: ??9.99 in HMV, ??7.99 in Amazon
Red and Blue compilations on iTunes: ??17.99 for about an hours worth of music.
Red and Blue CDs: ??7.99 in Amazon.
Fair play to Apple for refusing to capitulate to Jobs' doubtless considerable demands that they adhere to the shitty iTunes pricing structure, but I don't think this represents anything like a good deal as far as the punters are concerned. It'll be interesting to see if it drives sales of the physical product, but if it does, I can't imagine it'd be by much.
And in the end, this will be there downfall of the music industry.
Selling intangible products for more than a physical product is crazy. The music industry should be dropping prices not raising them.
Undoubtedly. Sgt. Pepper is #64 in the UK iTunes albums chart already.
They will have no problems selling it at whatever price they want.
Where the fuck is my on demand latte. I'm pissed as hell.
... and here I was hoping that the "world changing day" or whatever was going to be about some sort of Itunes subscription service.
A kid just came in and asked me for a turntable, which I had... he ended up deciding against the purchase because he had "like, a really small apartment." So small, in fact, that he couldn't be bothered to buy anything to actually play his records on.
My heart darkens further every day...
Didn't he know how big turntables were and how big his apartment is before he came to the store?
I don't like reading about your shop experiences any more. They're starting to make me angry.
Working any type of retail 5-6 days a week will brun the ass in pubix of even the most peaceful souls among us.
"I am particularly glad that I will no longer be asked when the Beatles are coming to iTunes."
That's what he thinks.
I'll wager that he's still asked this for at least another year.