Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Apple Inc. downplays Beatles "speculation"


By Tom Ferguson
16 minutes ago


LONDON (Billboard) -
Apple Inc has dismissed claims in the
U.K. press that the Beatles catalog is about to be made
available online through the computer giant's iTunes Music
Store
as "unsubstantiated speculation."

Reports on Friday suggested that unnamed sources "close to
Sir Paul McCartney" had confirmed that the Beatles catalog
would be available online though iTunes and other legal
services "within months." However, the claim has been met with
a string of "no comments" from the Beatles' own label Apple
Corps, and EMI. "This is not news nor is it a scoop," says an
Apple Inc. spokesman, declining further comment.

Efforts to clear the Beatles' music for digital
distribution had long been delayed by a trademark dispute
between Apple Inc. and Apple Corps., which was finally resolved
in February, 2007.

Olivia Harrison, widow of Beatles guitarist George, told
Reuters last June that the surviving band members McCartney and
Ringo Starr plus the representatives of her late husband and
John Lennon were in agreement that the material should be made
available. At that time, an early 2008 release was suggested as
likely.

McCartney , whose solo catalog is already available
on-line, told Billboard in November that "It's down to
fine-tuning, but I'm pretty sure it'll be happening next year,
2008."

Reuters/Billboard

    This content was originally posted on http://entertainews.blogspot.com/ © 2008 If you are not reading this text from the above site, you are reading a splog

    No comments: