MacBreak Weekly 221: Beatle's Juice

Beatle commercialization, iOS 4.2 rumors, Android tablet bounty, Peaches and Regalia, and more.

In less than 12 hours we've already had the backlack to the backlash to the backlash regarding the Beatles announcement.  

"Really, that's it?  How is that world changing?  Who doesn't have The Beatles on their iPod?"

"Look at all these whiners complaining about the Beatles announcement.  Not everything is going to be about the cloud.  This is keeping the Beatles relevant."

"Listen to all of these Apple apologists.  The Beatles don't need any help staying relevant.  Steve Jobs is the only one excited about this."

I consider myself amongst the first and third backlashers, there was a momentary bit of hope that it would be iOS 4.2 (which only made sense after I upgraded with the Developer's Beta version yesterday and lost all my music) but just having the Beatles on iTunes left me thoroughly "Meh."  Like most people I had that Beatles awakening in high school, got the red and blue collections using that killer Best Buy discount, and now load the ripped versions of those onto every new iPhone I get even though I know I'll never listen to them.  It's hard for me to see how this strengthens iTunes as a brand, but I'm also far from the average music consumer so perhaps there were people just waiting to get their digital versions (I saw a few numbers showing the classic Beatles albums around the 20's in sales after the announcement).

Is there a band around today that would elicit this same kind of fervor if their back catalogue was suddenly released in a new format?  If Radiohead or Nine Inch Nails weren't on iTunes wouldn't everyone already have their cd's ripped?  I was going to include Tool in that list but noticed they're actually not on iTunes, but I've never heard anyone mention it.  Is this completely a generational gap issue when it comes to technology?  How much longer can that gap even last?

Top Quotes

• "I think Steve was wrong about seven inches.  Seven inches is enough."