When Apple teased “Tomorrow is just another day. That you’ll never forget” on their home page yesterday I hoped it was going to be something really cool — like cloud-based iTunes or a subscription iTunes service. When the news began to leak out that the event was the Beatles coming to iTunes finally it was cool, but a day I’ll never forget? Nope.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s great to finally have the Beatles on iTunes, but Apple, lets keep this in check. For $149 and the click of a button it’s nice to get all of the Beatles tracks from iTunes if I want them, but most Beatles fans had the band’s entire discography ripped when MP3s started going mainstream back in 2001. Heck, hardcore fans probably had their tracks encoded at such high levels in Ogg Vorbis or FLAC that they needed a separate hard drive just to contain their Beatles tunes (and if they don’t yet, Amazon will help them out — today they lowered their Beatles Stereo Box Set to only $129).
Seven years ago a Beatles/iTunes announcement might have earned the “never forget” slogan, but not today in 2010. And while it’s only been three hours since the release, the iTunes Store music charts confirms that this isn’t the earth-shattering news it was made out to be. Not one Beatles song has cracked the Top 10 list yet, while a new song from Katy Perry or the Black Eyed Peas usually shoots up the charts within minutes of being released — and without taking up 40% of the real estate on the iTunes Music Store homepage or the front page of Apple.com like the Fab Four has.
I also want to point out that for all the hoopla over today’s “event” one thing that could have made it somewhat memorable is a Beatles-branded iPod touch. If a band-branded iPod is good enough for some guys from Dublin, surely a group of four lads from Liverpool deserve one too.
Beatles: glad to have you on iTunes. Apple: I’ve already forgotten something you said I wouldn’t. Wish I could remember what it was…
Today is just another day I will forget originally appeared on TUAW on Tue, 16 Nov 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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