The Beatles finally coming to iTunes, according to Yoko Ono (update: EMI says not tomorrow)

Even more than in past years, the build-up to Apple's iPod event this Wednesday has been nothing if not a bevy of The Beatles / iTunes rumors -- the company even broke with its traditional Tuesday event date to have it instead on "09-09-09," the same day The Beatles Rock Band and a new box set are due to hit store shelves. Now it looks like we've heard it from none other than Yoko Ono herself, who in a now-pulled Sky News article confirmed that the Fab Four's headed for digital distribution. All that's left of the piece is a Google cache of the first sentence, so for the full skinny, it looks like we'll have to wait until tomorrow.

Update: EMI is telling Financial Times that, while conversations are still going on, no announcements will be made tomorrow.

Read - Yoko Ono reveals Beatles on iTunes
Read - Google cache

[Edmunn Posted Sep 8th 2009 5:20PM]

Was just discussing on Facebook how The Beatles are never coming to iTunes, this is freaky, real freaky. D:

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 8th 2009 5:29PM]

Not really, as many sources have been hinting at this for the last month. You were just wrong, real wrong

[monkey with glasses Posted Sep 8th 2009 5:36PM]

Me, personally, I've never really liked any artist to praise them, so I might sound weird when saying, "What's the big deal with Elvis, Micheal, the Beatles and numerous other artist which people seem to go crazy for and die to see. To me they are just people who sings songs, nothing significant, sure some song are amazing, but that's only cause you might relate too some. Shouldn't all songs be available for purchase regardless of what program uses, I mean releasing a RB game with only Beatles songs, come on.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 8th 2009 5:53PM]

@PDubNYC: No, engadget is wrong: http://gizmodo.com/5354915/extra-confirmed-emi-says-no-beatles-on-itunes-tomorrow

EMI owns the tracks, not yoko.

[Cash9007 Posted Sep 8th 2009 5:54PM]

So Yoko just made all those "insiders close to the source" Apple Insider and TUAW quoted earlier look like a bunch of asshats.

Looks like the Ol' girl's still got it. And by "it" I of course mean the power to crush all those who defy or contradict her. She's like the Palpatine to Hilary Clinton's Darth Vader.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 8th 2009 6:38PM]

I just want Michael Jackson's heirs to get their cut from this. I never gave a damn about the Beatle's music but, I'm just glad the Jackson's will profit from it.

[Brother Unit No 4 Posted Sep 8th 2009 5:20PM]

Pretty sure Apple was saving this news for tomorrow. One less surprise for the conference.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 8th 2009 5:41PM]

Can only imagine what Jobs is like right now:

"That bitch stole my thunder! MY One More Fuck Thing! I knew I shouldn't have moved the iPod event from the usual karmic Tuesday".

[01 Posted Sep 8th 2009 6:37PM]

@ Dave:

Yeah, Yoko fucked it up. Who could have seen that coming?

[Professor Kaos Posted Sep 8th 2009 7:19PM]

We'll see what the almighty Yogurt has to say about Yoko ....

[petepete Posted Sep 8th 2009 8:29PM]

god damnit i hate this bitch

[Burke Hamblin Posted Sep 8th 2009 5:21PM]

Yet, Yoko's "5 Hours of Screaming and Clanging Utensils" boxed set remains unavailable from iTunes.

[kjb434 Posted Sep 8th 2009 5:30PM]

If you really want that, you could find it since really no one bought.

Sad that the woman that destroyed the Beatles is the one that is going to profit from them now......

[Ethan Posted Sep 8th 2009 5:21PM]

She probably thought the story would run tomorrow. Maybe it was supposed to.

[DJManoloco Posted Sep 8th 2009 5:24PM]

It's already tomorrow in Japan.

[Jimbo Posted Sep 8th 2009 5:37PM]

But Yoko Ono doesn't live in Japan.

[d0mth0ma5 Posted Sep 8th 2009 5:47PM]

Not like Yoko to steal the limelight.... wait....

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 8th 2009 6:54PM]

or maybe she heard that EMI was in talks for 'digital distribution' assumed that they meant itunes, knew there was an event by Apple tomorrow and just assumed that they were going to be the ones doing the distribution and with that perfectly chosen date (which was picked due to a combo of post 'back to school' and the labor day holiday) it was going to be announced at the event.

and EMI made Sky pull it cause it was wrong.

[Jordan Posted Sep 8th 2009 9:56PM]

Maybe Apple didn't inform her they moved their usual Tuesday conference to Wednesday.

Either way, who cares if they comes to iTunes, just buy the CDs and rip them at a better quality than iTunes provides anyways and you're good to go. Not to mention you also have the real CDs

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 9th 2009 11:12AM]

Something tells me Yoko doesn't keep up on when the latest Apple events are.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 8th 2009 5:21PM]

I've never heard a single Beatles song..where do I start?

[tcc3 Posted Sep 8th 2009 5:37PM]

Cant go wrong with Rubber Soul and Revolver.

[erik1080 Posted Sep 8th 2009 5:39PM]

Abbey Road, kthxbai

[hey Posted Sep 8th 2009 5:44PM]

Sgt. Peppers.

[d0mth0ma5 Posted Sep 8th 2009 5:49PM]

You must have heard "Yellow Submarine" I thought all 8 year olds sang it... not the best by far though.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 8th 2009 5:56PM]

any of the ones said already are good, or the White Album (that's how I got into their music)

[onlyshawn Posted Sep 8th 2009 5:58PM]

start with the 'one' album. has all their popular songs on it...or, honestly, if you want to have tons of fun...go see their "Love" Cirque du Soleil show in vegas. The album is great, and the show is wonderful.

[Millah Posted Sep 8th 2009 7:05PM]

I'm willing to bet you money that you've heard several beatles songs in your life, you probably just didn't know it was them

[FallenArms3 Posted Sep 8th 2009 7:15PM]

Judging by these comments, seon, you should start by just listening to ALL of The Beatles.

[LiqwidZero Posted Sep 8th 2009 5:21PM]

The date for the 09/09/09 iTunes/iPod event was just too convenient. I'm 99.99% sure that everyone saw this coming.

[Brother Unit No 4 Posted Sep 8th 2009 5:22PM]

Maybe Apple bought the rights and will announce the Dreamcast 2. Now THAT would be a shocker.

[LiqwidZero Posted Sep 8th 2009 5:25PM]

I actually was hoping for that announcement, no joke.

[ArhcAngel Posted Sep 8th 2009 5:42PM]

Number Nine, Number Nine, Number Nine.....I buried......

Damn! now I'm gonna have to dig out my MMT album....see if I still have a working phonograph and play that thing backwards.....aw memories.

[LiqwidZero Posted Sep 8th 2009 6:10PM]

Thanks, Justin. I know it was Brian, I've just always called him "Bob" for some reason.

[JohnnyIdaho Posted Sep 8th 2009 5:22PM]

Who cares, if you are a beatles fan, chances are you already have the cds, whats so amazing about a band showing up on itunes this many years after coming out?

[Brother Unit No 4 Posted Sep 8th 2009 5:24PM]

I'm guessing what's so amazing is the number of zeroes Apple's gonna be seeing by the end of the week.

[Kabong30 Posted Sep 8th 2009 5:25PM]

Anything that makes older music more accessible is a good thing. Certainly better than the garbage being pumped out of today's music industry. Puh-puh-puh-poker face, anyone?

[Mikey M Posted Sep 8th 2009 5:48PM]

I'm a Beatles fan (not a huge one, but I think I appropriately respect their spot in musical history) and I don't have any full albums. Plus, NOBODY has the digitally remastered albums that are coming out tomorrow, and since they spent over 4 years remastering all the beatles albums, I think it would be pretty awesome to get them (although I wouldn't buy them on iTunes unless they were a lot cheaper than the box set).

[R V Posted Sep 8th 2009 6:41PM]

Just because you cant read it, Fred, doesn;t mean you have to hate.

[thorn22 Posted Sep 8th 2009 8:17PM]

@ Fred
What do you mean by "more accessible"? You can walk into almost any record/music store in the world and pick up a Beatles CD. People are blowing this completely out of proportion.

[jordanbiffle Posted Sep 8th 2009 5:22PM]

SHE RUINS EVERYTHING!!!! SHE IS THE REASON THE BEATLES BROKE UP, SHE ALMOST RUINED THE BEATLES ROCK BAND, AND NOW, SHE RUINED WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN APPLE"S BIGGEST ANNOUNCEMENT! DAMNIT!

[LiqwidZero Posted Sep 8th 2009 5:35PM]

I'm going to go ahead and say that, no, she didn't. If you ever tried to look into interviews and etc., it's more because of John and George that they split. Everyone was in a different world, and Paul and Ringo wanted to keep trucking. Really, their voyage to India ruined their relationship. Sure, Yoko pushed to have a say in the band, but that's beacause John wanted her with him all the time. I can't blame Yoko, but I can blame John. He and George just weren't so interested in being a part of The Beatles anymore.

[Mikey M Posted Sep 8th 2009 5:44PM]

There's a big article in a recent Rolling Stone about "Why the Beatles broke up." I've only scanned it so far, but I think the article basically jibes with what Zero is saying.

The argument that Yoko alone "broke up the Beatles" is a little too simplistic to be believed.

[Waffle Slayer Posted Sep 8th 2009 5:45PM]

@LiqwidZero I'm going to go ahead and say that, no, she didn't. If you ever tried to look into interviews and etc., it's more because of John and George that they split. Everyone was in a different world, and Paul and Ringo wanted to keep trucking. Really, their voyage to India ruined their relationship. Sure, Yoko pushed to have a say in the band, but that's beacause John wanted her with him all the time. I can't blame Yoko, but I can blame John. He and George just weren't so interested in being a part of The Beatles anymore. [citation needed]

[LiqwidZero Posted Sep 8th 2009 5:55PM]

@ Waffle:
Read this article by Rolling Stone Magazine.
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/29723450/why_the_beatles_broke_upbr_the_story_behind_our_cover/1

I may have oversimplified it, but there are many reasons why The Beatles broke up, and it really had nothing to do with Yoko at all! Another huge reason was Bob Epstein's death, which made Apple Corps fall into a bit of a financial crisis. But, read the articles, and you will learn.

I also notice that you put a [citation needed] piece on that quote. So, why don't you look at the Wikipedia entry?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles'_breakup

I'm not trying to defend Yoko, (trust me I don't like her at all) but she is not the one to blame.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 8th 2009 6:02PM]

*Brian Epstein

[KarlW Posted Sep 8th 2009 6:14PM]

I will trust that you don't like her; nobody likes her much.

[Decoy Posted Sep 8th 2009 10:43PM]

I read the news today, oh boy.
An Apple fanboy just began a war

[Blind Boy Grunt Posted Sep 8th 2009 11:10PM]

The Rolling Stone article on the break up was amazing and a great way to look into what happened. As mentioned before, Yoko Ono was not the reason The Beatles broke up, but instead a catalyst.

On the other hand, she brought out the worst in John Lennon when it came to how he acted and the decisions he made (especially with a growing drug problem, one that Yoko did anything but help with).

I do not blame Yoko Ono for The Beatles breaking up, however I think she is a very selfish, self absorbed person. This can be seen in the Rolling Stone article, along with multiple other accounts.

On a completely separate note: Does anyone else help that iTunes will sell this in a Lossless format, allowing people to actually hear the differences between the remastered version and the original CD mastering?

[FYB Posted Sep 8th 2009 5:23PM]

Who gives a crap. What I want to know is where is AC/DC?