Apple Corp., meet Apple, Inc.
After years of hoping, wrangling, and (by classic rock fans) hand-wringing, The Beatles have finally consented to join the Apple digital music world. As announced on apple.com early this morning, 16 albums, from Please Please Me (1963) To the collection The Beatles (1973), can be yours to download.
Besides giving Beatles fans a lot of material to go and spend money on, today's decision really cements Apple (and Stve Jobs) as the King of Media. If you want music, iTunes is the #1 destination. It's becoming something more of a race for video content, but Apple is in there, too, and now it has an impressive lead when it comes to music.
The albums, for the most part, will be $12.99. Indicidual songs, $1.29 each. As you might have expected, there's a box set available for $149, along with some video footage, too.
With iTunes having long ago become the place to be if you're making the music, this is the big fish people have been waiting for. There are still some noteable holdouts (Radiohead comes to mind), but really, after all of the "Dear Prudence, Welcome to iTunes" headlines we're bound to see today, are we really going to wait for any other bands? ("Welcome to iTunes, Kid A" might be a great day for we Radiohead fans, but I must admit, it won't carry the same heft).
No, the big classic rock day is here, just (as they say) in time for the Holidays. A big jolt will likely come to iTunes - maybe some new fans, after holfding out, will journey to the Apple store for that forst iPod. Either way, digital music just cemented another milestone. It's now even more dominant than it was before.
Scott can be found on Twitter: @scottbudman
