Yoko Ono, the widow of the late John Lennon has said this week that negotiations between Apple and The Beatles are still at a standstill, so don’t expect the popular catalog to hit iTunes or other MP3 stores anytime soon.
The band remains one of the few to not go legally digital, instead selling physical CDs like they did last year, with the catalog remastered.
Apple Corps (not to be confused with iTunes owner Apple), the group’s holding company still cannot come to terms with the EMI Group, the label which licenses the Beatles’ recordings.
Says Ono: “[Apple CEO] Steve Jobs has his own idea and he’s a brilliant guy. There’s just an element that we’re not very happy about, as people. We are holding out. “Don’t hold your breath … for anything.”
Apple Corps is jointly owned by Ono, Paul McCartney, Ringo Star and Olivia Harrison, widow of former member George Harrison.
While the company may seem closed off to new digital ideas, the band’s music was reissued on CD last year, is available via the “Beatles: Rock Band” video game and through the Cirque du Soleil “Love” stage show.
Result for: rock band
Harmonix has released the demo for the upcoming Rock Band sequel, Green Day: Rock Band and included is a teaser image that seems to imply that the upcoming game will have keyboard support, an all-new instrument for the popular music game series.
Users can download the two-track demo from the XBL Marketplace and play the songs “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” and “Welcome to Paradise.”
The image shows off the four standard icons, (mic, guitar, bass, drums) with the keyboard fifth.
The original game of the series sold over 5 million tracks, and led to a revolution in DLC (downloadable content), selling over 40 million tracks.
Rock Band 2 continued strong sales for the franchise, although reviews were not as great.
Pic via JoyStiq:
Result for: rock band
According to leading video game analysts Michael Pachter and Jesse Divnich, the U.S. video game industry made a strong comeback in September, returning to growth after six months of negative year-on-year numbers.
The growth is being attributed to the price cut of the PS3 (and launch of the Slim) as well as the high sales of Wii Sports Resort, Halo 3: ODST and The Beatles: Rock Band.
The PS3 saw growth of up to 75 percent year-on-year, to 410,000 units, while the Xbox 360 stayed neutral at around 350,000 units sold. The Wii however, says Pachter, saw a giant fall in sales, about 43 percent year on year, down to 390,000 units.
Divnich believes Wii sales fell even further, to about 375,000 while the Xbox 360 grew to 370,000. PS3 numbers were about the same as Pachters.
DS/DSi sales grew 22 percent and PSP sales fell about the same amount, says Pachter.
NPD will release official numbers on October 15th.
