BlueBeat’s Innovative Defense That Will Never Hold Up in Court

Hank Risan was ordered to pull The Beatles' catalog from the BlueBeat website this week, but those weren't the actual recordings. The tracks were "psycho-acoustic simulations" of the songs. Too bad that defense will never hold up in court. More »

Beatles Remastered: A Reminder of Why It Will Probably Rock

So tomorrow there won't be Beatles in the iTunes, but you will be able to get them carefully remastered in CD form. If you are a music fan, this is why you should care—especially about the mono version. More »

Extra Confirmed: EMI Says No Beatles On ITunes Tomorrow

EMI global catalog chief Ernesto Schmitt confirms to the Financial Times what we suspected at the Rolling Stones-inflected iPod event: The Beatles won't be making their grand iTunes Music Store debut tomorrow. More »

Beatles Re-Mastered Gallery

Phil Spector Requests iPod to Pass the Time While in Jail

Famed Beatles producer and founding member of the Horrible Mugshot Hall of Fame Phil Spector is beginning to serve his 19-year prison sentence for murder, and made a specific request to help him pass the time: An iPod. More »

The Story of the Beatles in Two Minutes

I don't care about Rock Band. Or Beatles Rock Band. Not even Lego Rock Band. But I do care about The Beatles, and the game's opening cinematic is just a perfect, beautiful summary of their history. [Thanks Omar]

These Are the Beatles' Rock Band Guitars

Apparently these are the two guitars included in The Beatles: Rock Band, the Rickenbacker 325 played by Lennon and a Gretsch Duo Jet, played by Harrison—although I always remember him with the Country Gentleman. [Updated] More »

All 12 Beatles Albums Newly Remastered, MP3 Distribution Coming Soon?

Beatles fans and audiophiles alike should be excited that the Liverpool quartet's entire 12-album catalogue will be live and remastered in stere-eree-o on September 9—yes, 9.9.09—the same day that "The Beatles: Rock Band" comes out. More »

Beatles: Rock Band Will Come With Custom Beatles Instruments

The fact that there's a new Rock Band:Beatles iteration is coming this year isn't a surprise, but the fact that they're going to have custom Beatles instruments is. More »

The Neumann Microphone: Approved By the Beatles and Hitler

NPR has this fascinating piece on the custom microphone building threaded with history of Neumann Microphones. Neumann made the smooth-sounding U47 that the Beatles recorded on almost exclusively on from 1962 to 1970, as did Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, and others. When I say others, I mean Hitler. More »

Paul McCartney Signs $400 Million iTunes Deal For The Beatles Catalog

Finally! Paul McCartney has signed a $400 million deal, which will see the Beatles catalog make its way to iTunes, at long last. UPDATE: While the UPI is a great source, and their story was written as fact, Sony/ATV, holders of much of the Beatles publishing rights, are throwing doubt on any of this being true. The UPI could have been had, too. Consider their source, the Daily Mail. And EMI, who we contacted directly, denies any news, either. More »

Space Aliens First to Get DRM-Free Beatles Music?

You may have heard that at 7pm EST on Feb. 4, NASA plans to blast The Beatles' song "Across the Universe" into deep space in order to serenade otherworldly beings hundreds, thousands or millions of light years away with our very best pop music. I have several problems with this. More »

Sir Paul "Pretty Sure" Beatles Catalog Hits iTunes, Other Stores in 2008

Paul McCartney just told Billboard that digital distribution of the Beatles back catalog is happening in 2008, and that the legal hurdles were already mostly cleared. Of course, he did qualify that with an "I'm pretty sure..." Here's what he told Billboard: More »

Microsoft's Paul Allen's $12 Million Yellow Submarine

It appears Microsoft's co-founder is a big fan of things that sink. Obviously an avid Beatles fan, Allen's latest toy is a fully functional 40-foot yellow submarine (not to be confused with a 40-foot Yello Sub, which would be an even worse investment). He's now a member of a small, exclusive clique of ultra-rich underwater explorers; about 100 personal submarines are floating around our oceans. Hopefully it came with better drivers than Vista (zing!). [Paul Allen's New Sub via Valleywag]

EMI, Apple and YouTube Officially In Love Triangle; Warner Music Attempts Solo Project

Apple adds YouTube to Apple TV. EMI tracks are now sold DRM-free on iTunes. The triangle completes itself today, as EMI announced that it would share a bunch of EMI music videos on YouTube, and even "let" users integrate some of EMI's copyrighted material into their own homemade productions. Let's see what happens when (yes, when) that content includes the entire Beatles catalog. More »

McCartney Says Beatles Online Deal 'Virtually Settled'

Yes, we know, there have been a half dozen or more false alarms about the Beatles music finally becoming legally available online, but this time, we're hearing it from a former Beatle. Singer-songwriter Paul McCartney told Billboard in an interview that a deal to sell the Beatles catalog online is "virtually settled." More »

Beatles Catalog Online: Mojo Filtered?

We've heard this so many times, we're reluctant to believe it: Again there are reports that that the Beatles will release their music catalog online. But the deal seems to be groovin' up slowly. No sooner had a tease of "an exciting new digital offering" been released from EMI Group—the label that's handled the Beatles in England since the beginning—when "a source familiar with the situation" said that for some reason the announcement tomorrow morning won't include the Beatles after all. What a letdown! The event was even supposedly going to include a special live performance. More »

Beatles Album Covers, Starring Lego

You don't have to be a Lego fan to love the creativity and pure genius of the artist who calls himself Digger Digger Dogstar, re-creating Beatles album covers starring Lego and Dogstar's excellent Photoshop skills. – Charlie White More »

No Beatles iTunes Exclusivity

So we all know that the Beatles songs are going to be available for download. But the head honcho over at Apple Corps, Neil Aspinall, is claiming that there won't be any iTunes exclusivity. That means we can look for Yellow Submarine or Twist and Shout on all the major download services.– Brian Lam More »

Beatles 'Let it Bii' Shirt Lacks Words of Wisdom

Nerdy Shirts came up with a lamebrained idea: let's mix up the Beatles with the Nintendo Wii, supposedly combining the best of both worlds. More »

Rumor: Widescreen Touch iPod, Beatles Edition, To be Announced at Super Bowl?

Yeah, right, Steve Jobs is going to get on the field at half time and announce a new iPod and Beatles collaboration with cheerleaders backing him up. Good one. Wait, what's that? They're going to announce a product by commercial? Yeah, that's even more Apple-like. Uh huh. More »

Apple Announcing Beatles Catalog During Superbowl?

Our estimate of February 14 for an Apple + Beatles combination seems to be a little off by about a week and a half. The Toronto Sun says Apple's planning a Superbowl commercial announcing something, which may or may not be the partnership between Apple and Apple. More »

Rumor: Beatles Finally on iTunes by February 14?

A rumor surfaced on a Beatles fanboy site, claiming that Apple and the Fab Four have come to some sort of agreement to sell Beatles music on the iTunes store. As the story goes, The Beatles brilliant remix, Love, will reportedly be the first album to hit the iTunes site, perhaps as early as Valentine's Day. Fortune magazine fanned the flames, recently claiming that a special Beatles edition iPod might be part of the deal. More »

Beatles Losers in Apple vs. Apple Case

When the Beatles and Steve Jobs somehow both decided to call their companies Apple, someone would inevitably be singing the song "I'm a Loser." In a court battle over whether iPods and iTunes will still be allowed to carry an Apple logo, a British judge ruled that Apple Computer has a store and a music player, and the music itself doesn't have Apple logos on it, so there's no harm, no foul. More »

Beatles Catalog to be Offered on iTunes

Former Beatles road manager and Apple Corps boss Neil Aspinall confirmed plans to remaster the Beatles catalog and offer it for download on the iTunes Music Store. Aspinall first talked publicly about those plans during the Apple Corps trial against Apple Computer in a UK court last week, and his statement was again confirmed by an Apple Corps spokeswoman. More »

Apple Corps vs. Apple Computer: All You Need is Love

Looks like Apple has wound up in court against the beloved Beatles again, where Maxwell's Silver Hammer is coming down on the Macheads for jacking that trademark name from the Fab Four way back when. More »