Beatles Not Exclusive to iTunes? Apple Trademark Licensing Terms?
There have been a lot of rumors and speculation that Apple and the Beatles had come to an exclusive agreement to release the Beatles catalog on iTunes. The rumors were reinforced when Apple Inc and Apple Corps announced a trademark agreement earlier this month in which Apple Inc will own all the trademarks related to "Apple" and license the trademarks back to Apple Corps for continued use.
Aspinall's comments indicate that they will be releasing the Beatles catalog in time, but that it will not be exclusive to iTunes:
But now Aspinall says that when the Beatles songs do get put on the Internet officially, it will be on all the services, not just one. So all the Beatles songs will be found on iTunes, Rhapsody, etc. Thats very PC of him!
Another interesting comment suggests that there was more to the licensing agreement between Apple Inc and Apple Corps than revealed by the announcement:
The Beatles, sources say (and not Aspinall, whom I didn't even discuss this with), may have won royalties on Apple iTunes/iPod hardware as part of the settlement.
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(View all)Reporter Roger Friedman claims Apple Corps executive Neil Aspinall confirmed to him that the Beatles core catalog has been remastered and is ready to release via online music stores. No dates given. He also says that no one online store will get an exclusive deal.
Here's the link (Foxnews.com)
If you'd rather not visit Foxnews.com, I've written about the story on my site and included all of the relevant quotes.
Obviously, we've all assumed this was happening, but the real news is that Apple Corps is saying iTunes won't get the exclusive deal that has been rumored for months. No exclusive deal, no Beatles-edition iPod? We'll see...
Are U2 exclusive? Because they have a U2 iPod...why do you connect the two?
Are U2 exclusive? Because they have a U2 iPod...why do you connect the two?
First off, the rumors have connected the two. And it makes sense that an exclusive deal would add some juice to Beatles iPod announcement.
U2 released the song Vertigo exclusively on iTunes prior to the announcement of the U2 iPod. They also let Apple sell an exclusive digital box set in conjunction with the release of the U2 iPod.
I'm not making any predictions. Just pointing out that one part of the "Beatles on iTunes" rumor appears to be wrong, and maybe that says something about the other Beatles rumors.
they were in the right place at the right time
over rated and over hyped.
why are they even in the news here? why not write about every artist that is or isnt on itunes?
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