The Beatles: 21st century holdouts… why?

On his website Jon asks a very important question thats been asked by thousands (millions?) of people to date:

Why, after “so many years into the era of digital music” do the Beatles still not allow digital downloads of their songs?

and Jon’s article goes on:

The question comes in a Wall Street Journal item which says, “The Beatles and their heirs have refused to make their songs available on the Apple iPod or other devices.”

Given that Paul McCartney, the only surviving Beatle to have maintained any kind of profile on or offline, is among other antique rockers such as Cliff Richard (right) who want rights extended to 700 years, or so, it’s hardly surprising Beatles tunes aren’t on the handful of Big Music supplied sites which are trying to peddle the same thing to the same people at the same rip-off prices.

“For two days last week, it seemed that the last holdouts had relented, making their music available digitally,” says the story. “It then turned out that the owners of the Beatles had not changed their minds. Instead, the cut-rate 25 cents a song was the result of what a federal judge called a brazen violation of copyright law.”

Read the entire article and commentary here

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