James Delahunty
15 Apr 2006 12:38
The story of "The Beatles" is one of the greatest success stories in the recording industry's history. With millions of fans worldwide and continued demand for the music, the group's record company is about to finally sell music downloads. Neil Aspinall, managing director of Apple Corps, said that the company was digitally remastering the entire Beatles catalog, which will lead to the tracks being sold online. "I think it would be wrong to offer downloads of the old masters when I am making new masters," he said in a written statement.
"It would be better to wait and try to do them both simultaneously so that you then get the publicity of the new masters and the downloading, rather than just doing it ad hoc," he continued. His comments were confirmed by a spokeswoman for Apple Corps. The songs will be available through popular online music download services, but it's not clear when. "There's no firm date on any of this at the moment. There are a lot of projects that Apple are working on at the moment," the spokeswoman said.
Apple Corps sued Apple Computer Inc. for the use of an Apple logo on iTunes; an act which the record company claims breaches a 1991 agreement between both companies. A decision in that case is expected after Easter.
Source:
Reuters