Music fans have been waiting for this for years (although I own a fair number of Beatles CDs, so they were already digitized for that format). Paul Resnikoff, editor of Digital Music News, suspects that digitizing the Beatles library for download services would have been impactful a few years ago, but that it's less of an issue now when all those CD versions are floating around on P2P networks. Here's his conclusion:

The issue highlights a much bigger problem. The well-worn statistic - and not-so-secret secret about iPod - is that most consumers only buy a handful of tracks from the iTunes Store. Different numbers have been thrown around, though most consumers grab a dozen or two tracks, at most. The rest of the typical iPod collection - thousands of songs - are ripped from CDs, swapped over file-sharing networks, or obtained from one-to-one sharing protocols like IM.

It's a tough reality for major labels and anyone else attempting to capture revenues from digital music sales - online or over-the-air. Years later, the iTunes Store has mostly become a shiny storefront, while the real action has been happening out back, in the alley. And against that backdrop, a successful Beatles licensing play would be mostly symbolic. Sure, "Beatles Go Digital" articles would persist for weeks, and cocktail conversations would have some fresh material. But years into an accelerating digital revolution, the event would mostly be unimportant.

posted by Patrick Ross @ 7:34 AM | Internet: P2P, Search Engines...

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