For those of you who've been aching for some digital Beatles music, I have five words for you: get 'em while you can! The Beatles' entire catalogue is available digitally, at least for now, on a U.S.-based website called BlueBeat.com. If you thought iTunes' 99 cent deal was great, wait till you hear this: individual tracks are going for 25 cents each.
The site is also streaming the Beatles' recently remastered albums in their entirety, allowing potential buyers to listen to them for free before purchase. For those that - through some anti-miracle - have never heard the Beatles, of course, and want to see what all the fuss is about.
All of this is certainly alarming news to EMI and Apple Corps, who have gone to extreme lengths in the years since the internet took over the world to prevent the sale of all Beatles music in digital format. So this begs the question: did Apple Corps or EMI grant BlueBeat.com permission to sell and stream The Beatles' music?
When contacted by MusicRadar, a source at EMI said, "We're looking into it," which they - and we - are taking as a "hell no, we didn't clear this."
So for the time being at least, if you're looking to get some Beatles music (or any of hundreds of other artists) on the cheap, BlueBeat.com is the place to go. Personally, I'd expect the site to be nonexistent by week's end, but who knows? Maybe Apple and EMI's lawyers won't care that their sacred cash cow is being milked on the cheap.
Right.
