New Beatles ringtones are exclusive to Apple's iTunes Store

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Comments

  • Reply 21 of 33
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by elroth View Post


    You know that the use of Beatles songs is controlled/owned by Sony and the Michael Jackson estate, right? Not the actual Beatle performances, but companies can use the songs and hire Beatle sound-alikes to perform them for commercials. McCartney was all set years ago to buy the song publishing rights (which the Beatles never owned), but he happened to tell Michael Jackson he was going to do it, and Jackson stepped in and outbid him.



    It was my impression that deal related only to a portion of the Beatles catalog. Yeah - I blamed MJ every time I heard the Beatles songs used to sell a product.



    But this ringtone thing is not the sheet music composition alone - these ringtones are the actual performances themselves, so I imagine Yoko signed the deal with Apple.
  • Reply 22 of 33
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Paul94544 View Post


    Whenever I here that Song "yesterday" I cringe, I saw an interview with John where he was asked about all the songs he "co-wrote" with Paul.



    His answers to who wrote Yesterday was and I am paraphrasing:-



    "Oh God no! I would never write a song like that, I'm only interested in looking forward - not backwards, that was Paul's gig!"



    I always thought of the song as a McCartney tune. The movie had him sitting at the piano figuring it out, if I remember correctly.
  • Reply 23 of 33
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by applecored View Post




    Now Sony get to exploit the Beatles back catalogue in anyway they like... ringtones, adverts etc...



    Can't buy your love though eh.
  • Reply 24 of 33
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Rot'nApple View Post


    'Cuz Sir Paul is a 1%er!

    /

    /

    /



    Likely correct. The working class hero thing was John's gig.
  • Reply 25 of 33
    paxmanpaxman Posts: 4,729member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by I am a Zither Zather Zuzz View Post


    I always thought of the song as a McCartney tune. The movie had him sitting at the piano figuring it out, if I remember correctly.



    That's what he is saying
  • Reply 26 of 33
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by paxman View Post


    That's what he is saying



    Then why does he cringe when John confirms it?
  • Reply 27 of 33
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by johnnyb0731 View Post


    Exactly. Just buy the song and create the ringtone in garage band



    Or make 'em directly in iTunes. 30 seconds on google and any track in your library can be made into a custom ringtone.
  • Reply 28 of 33
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Quantz View Post


    Where are they ?

    iTunes page gives the albums, but no ringtones link.



    I've just wasted 15 mins looking for the damn things. What's the matter with iTunes? The older it gets the less i like it.
  • Reply 29 of 33
    paxmanpaxman Posts: 4,729member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by I am a Zither Zather Zuzz View Post


    Then why does he cringe when John confirms it?



    He cringes when he hears the song.
  • Reply 30 of 33
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by I am a Zither Zather Zuzz View Post


    It was my impression that deal related only to a portion of the Beatles catalog. Yeah - I blamed MJ every time I heard the Beatles songs used to sell a product.



    But this ringtone thing is not the sheet music composition alone - these ringtones are the actual performances themselves, so I imagine Yoko signed the deal with Apple.



    The publishing rights to the Beatles catalog minus 2 songs ('Love Me Do' and 'PS I Love You', which are owned by Paul McCartney's MPL Publishing) are owned by Sony/ATV Music, which is owned by some split of Sony and the estate of Michael Jackson. Originally, that was a 50/50 split, but I think MJ either sold off or used part of his as collateral on a loan. Publishers can license the songs out for cover artists to use for commercials. If the artists don't own the rights, as is the case with the Beatles catalog, there's nothing the artists can do to stop the songs being used in this way. Blaming Yoko for hearing a Beatles song in a commercial is like blaming the moon for a Michael Bay movie: pointless as the two have nothing to do with each other. Whereas in the case of Nike using the actual recording of 'Revolution' in the 1980s, they could stop that instance.



    The original recordings, however, are owned by EMI and Apple Corps, the Beatles label. If you hear an original Beatles recording used, it has to be approved by all Paul, Ringo, and the families of George and John, and probably at some point EMI (or whatever is left of EMI these days). These ringtones obviously have been given the green light by the representatives of the Fab Four, and if it's good for them, it should be good for everyone. I personally use iTunes to make ringtones, so there's no chance of me buying them.



    As an aside, George Harrison's son, Dhani, is a HUGE fan of the Beatles online presence, and it's probably him we have the most to thank for seeing the Beatles catalog in the iTunes store and for Beatles Rock Band video game. He's very into keeping their legacy alive in the modern world, so many thanks from Beatles fans should go to him.
  • Reply 31 of 33
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by paxman View Post


    Not sure about that. The reason MANY people buy instead of creating their own is that a) It is quicker, b) Soooooo easy, and c) its cheap enough.



    Its the same with iTunes - or certainly was in the past when people questioned why you'd pay 99 cents for a song when it was available for free. People will usually choose the path of least resistance as long as that path won't break the bank. Steve Jobs was absolutely right.



    +1. For $1.29, all of the work is done for you. No need to figure out how to do it, or waste any time doing it. for a lot of people, it's just not worth the effort to make your own ringtones. Especially if you don't use a lot of them. I could see making them yourself, if you change your ringtone every couple of weeks, or if you have multiple ringtones for different people, but $1.29 is not exactly breaking the bank.



    does this announcement seem like it's about 2 years too late? Ringtones were a big deal several years ago, but I havne't really heard much about them in the past year or so.
  • Reply 32 of 33
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by F1Ferrari View Post


    The publishing rights to the Beatles catalog minus 2 songs ('Love Me Do' and 'PS I Love You', which are owned by Paul McCartney's MPL Publishing) are owned by Sony/ATV Music, which is owned by some split of Sony and the estate of Michael Jackson. Originally, that was a 50/50 split, but I think MJ either sold off or used part of his as collateral on a loan. Publishers can license the songs out for cover artists to use for commercials. If the artists don't own the rights, as is the case with the Beatles catalog, there's nothing the artists can do to stop the songs being used in this way. Blaming Yoko for hearing a Beatles song in a commercial is like blaming the moon for a Michael Bay movie: pointless as the two have nothing to do with each other. Whereas in the case of Nike using the actual recording of 'Revolution' in the 1980s, they could stop that instance.



    The original recordings, however, are owned by EMI and Apple Corps, the Beatles label. If you hear an original Beatles recording used, it has to be approved by all Paul, Ringo, and the families of George and John, and probably at some point EMI (or whatever is left of EMI these days). These ringtones obviously have been given the green light by the representatives of the Fab Four, and if it's good for them, it should be good for everyone. I personally use iTunes to make ringtones, so there's no chance of me buying them.



    As an aside, George Harrison's son, Dhani, is a HUGE fan of the Beatles online presence, and it's probably him we have the most to thank for seeing the Beatles catalog in the iTunes store and for Beatles Rock Band video game. He's very into keeping their legacy alive in the modern world, so many thanks from Beatles fans should go to him.







    Good info. Thanks.
  • Reply 33 of 33
    zoetmbzoetmb Posts: 2,654member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Paul94544 View Post


    Whenever I here that Song "yesterday" I cringe, I saw an interview with John where he was asked about all the songs he "co-wrote" with Paul.



    His answers to who wrote Yesterday was and I am paraphrasing:-



    "Oh God no! I would never write a song like that, I'm only interested in looking forward - not backwards, that was Paul's gig!"



    It's well known that Lennon and McCartney stopped writing together by 1966. It's also very well known that Lennon had nothing to do with "Yesterday" - he criticized McCartney for it in his solo song "How Do You Sleep?":

    "You live with straights who tell you, you was king

    Jump when your momma tell you anything

    The only thing you done was yesterday

    And since you've gone you're just another day"



    McCartney wrote the song "Silly Love Songs" in response.



    They made a deal early on in which they would share the Lennon-McCartney credit on all their Beatle songs. It doesn't mean they co-wrote all the songs. After Lennon's death, McCartney went to Yoko and asked if they could reverse the credit on Yesterday to McCartney-Lennon since that song is so identified with Paul and Lennon had nothing to do with it, but Yoko refused.



    Lennon's criticism about never looking back was total b.s. He would pull crap like that when he was mad at the other Beatles - he even admitted that he purposely lied about some stuff in a Playboy interview. "Yesterday" looks back in exactly the same way as Lennon's "Norwegian Wood" and "In My Life" does.
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