If anything, their slow road to the world’s virtual sales floors may have served to heighten their mystique.Īnd the results speak for themselves: In 19, several of the Beatles’ CDs succeeded in penetrating the upper reaches of the Billboard album charts.
With each new format change, Apple Corps is able to ensure that the Beatles enjoy an uncluttered stage in which their masterworks shine brightly, unchallenged by competing artists for their exalted place in the spotlight. By waiting out their competitors, the Beatles have created an event culture in which the chestnuts of their catalogue are reintroduced to the marketplace on a grand scale.
While the Beatles’ tardiness may seem like a blunder of monumental proportions - and there’s little question that significant profits were lost to pirates during the early years of the 21st century - the group’s longstanding restraint has also been the result of a well-honed strategy. Finally, in October 2009, the Beatles released remastered editions of their entire back catalogue and made their digital streaming debut on iTunes - some six years after the online music store had opened up shop. Years later, when the industry had shifted yet again, transitioning from physical product to music streaming services like iTunes and Spotify, the Beatles pointedly lagged behind once more, with untold millions of downloads occurring outside of their ken. By the time the Beatles showed up, nearly all of the band’s classic rock peers had made the transformation and reaped the attendant benefits. In 1987, the group finally released their original albums on compact disc, belatedly bringing their catalogue to the marketplace some five years after the CD paradigm shift had assaulted the record industry. While the Beatles produced one landmark, world-breaking album after another during their 1960s heyday, they have taken a consistently cautious approach when it comes to sharing their blue-chip wares in the digital age. When it comes to these latter-day forays into lavish repackaging, the Fab Four have been notoriously late to the party. Talk about getting the excitations, indeed.īut then there is the glaring issue of the Beatles. A completist’s wet dream, "The Smile Sessions" include nearly two dozen variations of megahit “Good Vibrations” alone. In 2011, Capitol Records released the Beach Boys’ "Smile Sessions," which features nearly 400 minutes’ worth of archival material and outtakes. As it happens, the standard-bearers in this evolving cottage industry may just be the Beach Boys, who have all but emptied the vaults in order to quench their fans’ unchecked desires for new content. In the past few years alone, music lovers have been treated to deluxe editions from such stalwarts as Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. We live in the golden age of remixed and remastered box sets, with the doyens of classic rock leading the way.
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