Digital Trends

One offshoot of the ongoing Apple Corps versus Apple Computer trademark infringement saga: the Beatles are getting ready to go online!

The latest flurry in the quarter-century of trademark battles between iPod-maker Apple Computer and the Beatles' Apple Corps shook loose an interesting bit of news: Apple Corps is preparing to take the Beatles online. At least, one day.

To date, Apple Corps has famously refused to take part in the Internet-based digital music industry, declaring at one point it saw no purpose to putting the much-loved tracks of the Fab Four available for sale via the Internet: they were doing quite all right, thank you, via traditional distribution channels. (That much is true: the recent released of Beatles' #1 singles, an anthology, and a stripped-down version of Let It Be garnered substantial sales—not bad for a band which broke up more than 35 years ago.) While fellow British acts like the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, and The Who have embraced online sales via venues like the iTunes Music Store, the Beatles are one of the few big-name catalogs resisting the revolution. (Another is Led Zeppelin.)

But in a statement to London's High Court earlier this month regarding the Apple v. Apple litigation, Apple Corps managing director Neil Aspinall (himself the Beatles' former road manager) revealed that Apple Corps is currently making new masters of the entire Beatles catalog with an eye towards offering the tracks for digital download. Apple Corps apparently intends to offer the new versions only in downloadable format, creating a publicity double-whammy when the catalog eventually becomes available: not only are the Beatles available online, but the tracks are like you've never heard them before! For some Beatles fans, this might make the fifth or six differently-mastered "official" versions of some famous tracks.

However, there's no end yet for this long and winding road: although Apple Corps has confirmed Aspinall's statement, the company asserted there are no firm dates for any digital releases of Beatles tracks, nor any hint of how online distribution and sales would be handled.