Yes, you read that right. The Beatles have arrived on streaming services. You can now listen to the legendary band on services like Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Prime.
Their catalog became available earlier today as an early Christmas present for the fans, and it seems everyone is rejoicing as seen in this screenshot of comments for a cover photo announcing the news in The Beatles' official Facebook page.
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| Image source: latecritic.blogspot.com |
But not everyone is happy about this. One user says,
I got the vinyls and the Cds and I keep their music in the car and at work, I don't need the internet to listen to the music I love. Also if new generations start listening to music this way they will think this is the real music format, never will see a cover album, a gatefold, the printed lyrics, never will see a record spinning. All of this is not about spreading The Beatles music or getting easy access it's just about money. I really feel sorry for the Beatles turned into a digital stream with a very limited quality sound in a virtual world. No man, that's not music...
Another user quotes,
I own all of the Beatles albums already and can listen to them whenever I want - why should I pay some service so that I can stream them?
Despite the criticism, a majority of fans are embracing the news.
It is worthy to note a few events that have occurred preceding the band's catalog becoming available. One event was the strike down of a majority of their music on Youtube.
Copyright claims made by Universal Music Group has led to many videos containing the band's music to be taken down, which meant that listening to their music for free was almost impossible, but for only a short time.
What happened next was a gradual upload of official music videos in high definition from The Beatles' Vevo channel on Youtube. Their first video, "Revolution," appeared on October 20, 2015, around the time Universal Music Group began making their copyright claims. Since then, the channel has uploaded 8 videos in total.
Although The Beatles and their music are now available on streaming services, one can't help but wonder why it took this long for it to happen. An even more obscure question, taking into account the preceding events that were mentioned, is what this move means for streaming services and how it affects fans.
One speculation is that the move will force fans, especially the older ones, who do not own any physical format of the music to rely on streaming services. This, in turn, will strengthen the idea that streaming services are a more reliable method of listening to music now that they have acquired a mature fan base who can, from the surface, validate this position.
However, this move may cause a split among fans. Those who continue to listen to music through physical formats (CDs and vinyls) will distinguish themselves from those who listen through streaming services. If things do become heated, the split, in a sociological context, may force people to reconsider the attributes of "real" music and "real" fans.
Only time will tell how this will affect fans and listeners. For now, the catalog on Spotify is almost complete. Demos from the Anthology series and Let It Be... Naked are not included. Hopefully, this will change as those demos provide an intimate insight to the development of The Beatles' music.
Copyright claims made by Universal Music Group has led to many videos containing the band's music to be taken down, which meant that listening to their music for free was almost impossible, but for only a short time.
What happened next was a gradual upload of official music videos in high definition from The Beatles' Vevo channel on Youtube. Their first video, "Revolution," appeared on October 20, 2015, around the time Universal Music Group began making their copyright claims. Since then, the channel has uploaded 8 videos in total.
Although The Beatles and their music are now available on streaming services, one can't help but wonder why it took this long for it to happen. An even more obscure question, taking into account the preceding events that were mentioned, is what this move means for streaming services and how it affects fans.
One speculation is that the move will force fans, especially the older ones, who do not own any physical format of the music to rely on streaming services. This, in turn, will strengthen the idea that streaming services are a more reliable method of listening to music now that they have acquired a mature fan base who can, from the surface, validate this position.
However, this move may cause a split among fans. Those who continue to listen to music through physical formats (CDs and vinyls) will distinguish themselves from those who listen through streaming services. If things do become heated, the split, in a sociological context, may force people to reconsider the attributes of "real" music and "real" fans.
Only time will tell how this will affect fans and listeners. For now, the catalog on Spotify is almost complete. Demos from the Anthology series and Let It Be... Naked are not included. Hopefully, this will change as those demos provide an intimate insight to the development of The Beatles' music.
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