Beatles for Sale

The Beatles have come to America once again, and this time they arrive courtesy of iTunes. The bickering is over, the lawsuits have been settled, and in the words of Ringo Starr, "I'm glad I no longer have to answer questions about when the Beatles are coming to iTunes."

This isn't the first time the Beatles' music has been released in a different format. Their complete history includes vinyl, 8-track, cassette tape, and CD's. Each new version came with it's own fanfare and with higher sound quality. And for this benefit, no one complained about the gradual increase in price despite the fact that many of us had already owned these songs in other formats.

Now we're at a true purchasing crossroads. Do we digitally download Beatles music on iTunes so we can add the same songs to our collection that we already own in countless other formats? The public spoke quickly on this one. Apple just reported than in the first two weeks, over 2 million Beatles songs were purchased on iTunes. It's truly an amazing feat for a band whose music is over 40 years old.

I'm proud to say that I made a small contribution to the cause by purchasing 4 songs - - two from Revolver and two from Rubber Soul. But when I received my bill, something hit me that I didn't realize before. Each song had a premium price of $1.29, the top of the scale for Apple. On the surface, this price structure is in line with other new releases in ther store. However, there was one major difference.

The song length.

The average length of a new release typically hovers between 3 and 4 minutes for a pop song and slightly longer for Rap, Rock, and Jazz. The Beatles are a completely different animal, er, insect. All of their early works, and a majority of the latter portion spanned no more than two minutes and change. That's extremely short by today's standards and even shorter when compared with contemporary bands of their era. Essentially, the Beatles have the highest cost per minute in the entire iTunes store. Just a small sample shows just how short their songs were:

Please Please Me 2:00
Love Me Do 2:21
Do You Want to Know a Secret 1:57
Hard Day's Night 2:33
Help 2:18
Nowegian Wood 2:04
Eleanor Rigby 2:06
Good Day Sunshine 2:09
Blackbird 2:18

They're all great songs, but are they really worth $1.29? iTunes gives you a :30 preview for each song, so essentially you get 25% of these songs for free anyway. So are they really worth full price? Apple also has an interesting policy for songs on the upper echelon of time. A song can run just under 10 minutes and the price would still be $1.29. That's a lot more music for your money. If the song runs over double digits, it's available on the album only. It's hard to argue with that policy. Especially when you consider the length of old songs from YES and Genesis which could be as long a full album sides.

But these bands qualified as progressive rock which doesn't compare well with classic rock groups. So when you research alternate bands of high regard, you realize one glaring difference - they are a much better value. It doesn't matter if you choose the Who, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, the Doors, or Lynard Skynard. They all have a better cost per minute. In fact, it's dramatic. Assuming you purchase the highest quality of these songs, the same $1.29 could buy you:

Sympathy for the Devil 6:17
Light my Fire 6:58
Riders of the Storm 7:08
Layla 7:08
Can't Always Get What You Want 7:28
Stairway to Heaven 8:02
Won't Get Fooled Again 8:34
Free Bird 9:09

I'm all for Apple and the Beatles making money. In fact, they do this better than most. But the individual songs are extremely overpriced. Like everything else, you should get what you pay for. In the case of the Beatles, you pay a massive premium for the digital version of the songs you already own.

The Beatles are for sale on iTunes, but the songs aren't.