Timing is everything goes the old saying, but while Apple Corps and EMI planned on announcing Beatles USB devices this week, neither anticipated launching a lawsuit against a U.S. website for selling Beatles downloads without permission.
First, the lawsuit.
During the last week of October, online digital music seller Bluebeat.com began selling downloads of the Fab Four’s music, a remarkable situation considering neither EMI nor Apple Corps have authorized any online music service, including iTunes, Napster or Amazon MP3, to get into the Beatles biz.
Last November, Paul McCartney mentioned during an interview that he wanted Beatles music sold on iTunes, but said there were “ a couple of sticking points” holding up the band’s online debut. McCartney also said the disagreements were more between EMI and Apple Corps than between electronics company Apple and the band.
“It’s between EMI and The Beatles I think,” McCartney said one year ago, adding, “What else is new?”
But even more surprising than an obscure website selling Beatles downloads is the pricing structure Bluebeat assigned for the downloads – approximately 25 cents per song and $3 to $4 per album, including the recently remastered albums.
Plus, for potential customers not willing to part with a few bucks, the website was also streaming the music for free.
Of course, music and tech bloggers questioned the appearance of Beatles tunes on a little known music website, with many taking the position that the downloads were unauthorized. Others suggested that maybe Apple Corps and EMI were conducting an experiment to gauge the selling power inherent in Beatles downloads.
But now it looks as if EMI and Apple Corps were just as surprised as the bloggers. According to BBC News, EMI has filed suit against Bluebeat, saying it had “not authorized content to be sold” on the website.
Meanwhile, Apple Corps and EMI announced there will be something special for Beatles fans this Christmas – limited edition stereo USB devices shaped like, well, apples.
The apple-shaped USB drives contain the tracks from the remastered CDs as well as other content including 13 mini-documentary films about the albums, original U.K. album art, rare photographs and expanded liner notes.
The tracks are provided in lossless FLAC 44.1 Khz 24 bit and MP3 320 Kbps formats.
But only 30,000 USB apples will become available Dec. 7, so now’s the time to preorder. You can do that by clicking here for The Beatles website.
Click here to read the complete BBC News report about EMI suing Bluebeat.com.