Beatles rank top 50 on iTunes

The much awaited move to digital downloads by the Beatles finally happened Tuesday, and within a day, the band’s music ranked top 50 on the iTunes music store albums chart.

Though many welcome one of the most influential bands in all of pop and rock to iTunes, some, such as professor Glenn Gass, who teaches a class on the Beatles, are not the least bit surprised that the music is finally available via iTunes.

“I’m surprised at how off the radar this is. All of a sudden I get this notice in my e-mail. I would have thought there would have been a much bigger deal, the way they marketed the remasters to death for weeks ahead of time, same thing with the Anthology. You’d think they would have made more of Apple on Apple,” he said.

Apple Corps, the Beatles’ recording label, and Apple Inc. have had several legal disputes since the 1970s, which began with the Beatles’ claiming that Apple Inc. had purposely taken the name and logo from their label. The two settled their last dispute in 2007.

Gass is surprised at how long it took before the Beatles catalogue was available in this format.

“It’s inevitable. I’m shocked it took this long,” he said. “What year is this? 2010? I can’t believe it’s taken this long since Apple computer and Apple Beatles settled their big lawsuits years ago. Everyone was waiting for this to happen then, and it didn’t happen then because they were waiting on the big Beatles CD remasters.”

Senior Kim Black didn’t realize that the Beatles would be available on iTunes so soon, but said she is happy about the release because young people don’t really consider going to the record store and buying CDs anymore.

“I would hope that people would buy the entire albums and not just specific songs. You can’t really just choose one song. I do think people will be able to give a whole album a chance now,” she said.

Gass said Neil Aspinall, best friend to the band and former head of Apple Corps, guarded their legacy jealously, always thinking about what John Lennon and George Harrison would have wanted.

“I think he had the sense that it was somewhat cheapening the Beatles to have them downloaded and downloaded outside of any regards to the album. I think that all the things that bother me bothered him even more,” Gass said.

Senior Debbie Newman, who is also a student in Gass’ Beatles class, said the biggest difference between the Beatles being an album band and on iTunes is that people will be able to get the music when they want.

“I think that people who aren’t too aware of the Beatles will be more curious about them. Not only that, but they will be able to get the music more quickly. It’s a good way to further their curiosity,” Newman said.

Only the stereo mixes are being sold by iTunes. The CDs in the mono mix, however, can only be purchased as a box set and not on iTunes.

Gass said although students are more apt to use iTunes as a means to get music on the spot, there is still something lost that goes along with buying an album.

“I’d much rather have the CD so that one, it will sound better when I play it on the stereo, and I can rip it to my iPod to my heart’s content, keep the albums intact more easily,” Gass said. “Personally, for me it’s not a big event. I bought the remasters last year, but for people who were waiting to download, it’s huge. This is epic. I just hope that it sounds good.”