Saturday, October 13, 2007

Ticket To Download

I received an email from 7digital a few days ago with this graphic.



"Wow", I thought. "7digital beat iTunes to getting the Beatles!" 7digital got the rights to distributing Radiohead's back catalog a while ago over iTunes, so it wasn't that far fetched. Maybe the Beatles were also concerned about selling their back catalog by the track?

But notice that the graphic says "John, Paul, George & Ringo" not "The Beatles". It's actually for their solo albums. I think John, Paul, George, and Ringo all did good things as solo artists, but all the highlights from their solo careers still doesn't hold a candle to the work they did collectively as "The Beatles". Now, that was a great band!

Speaking of Radiohead, I dowloaded their new one In Rainbows from their site yesterday, and I'm fairly impressed after a couple of listens. I wasn't that big on Hail To The Thief (the main comparison touchstone for this album), so I probably wouldn't have bought the new one right away, but it's definitely worth a variable-priced download. I opted to pay £2(US$4) or 40 cents a song, which seems like a fair price for online downloads. They're certainly making more money off me than they would have with traditional distribution.

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