The Beatles
32
The Beatles arrive at John F. Kennedy International Airport, 7 February 1964
support of the opinion that the original vinyl had significant advantages over the early CDs in clarity and dynamism, he suggested, "Compare 'Paperback Writer'/'Rain' on crackly 45, with its weedy Past Masters CD version, and the case is closed." Prior to the release of the 2009 remasters, Abbey Road Studios invited Mojo reviewers to hear a sample of the work, advising, "You're in for a shock." In his release-day review of the full product, Eccleston reported that "brilliantly, that's still how it feels a month later." The Beatles are among the few major artists whose recorded catalogue is not available through online music services such as iTunes and Napster. Residual disagreement stemming from Apple Corps' dispute with Apple, Inc. (owners and creators
Digital music
of iTunes) over the use of the name "Apple" is partly responsible, although in November 2008, McCartney stated that the main obstacle was that EMI "want something we're not prepared to give them." In March 2009, The Guardian reported that "the prospect of an independent, Beatles-specific digital music store" has been raised by Harrison's son, Dhani, who said, "We're losing money every day... So what do you do? You have to have your own delivery system, or you have to do a good deal with [Apple, Inc. CEO] Steve Jobs... [He] says that a download is worth 99 cents, and we disagree." On 30 October, Wired.com reported that an online service, BlueBeat, was making available the entire Beatles catalogue, via both purchasable downloads and free streaming. Neither EMI nor Apple Corps had authorized the distribution, and within a week BlueBeat was legally barred from handling the band's music. In December 2009, the Beatles' catalogue was officially released in FLAC and MP3 format in a limited edition of 30,000 USB flash drives. In 1963 Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr agreed to assign their song publishing rights to Northern Songs, a company created by music publisher Dick James. Administered by his company Dick James Music, Northern Songs went public in 1965 with Lennon and McCartney each holding 15% of the company's shares and James and the company's chairman, Charles Silver, holding a controlling 37.5%. After a failed attempt by Lennon and McCartney to buy the company, James and Silver sold Northern Songs in 1969 to British TV
Song catalogue