I couldn't get very excited when Apple made its "day you'll never forget" announcement last week that Beatles music is now available in iTunes. In fact, as far as Apple announcements go, it fell flat on its face.
If you like The Beatles, you've probably got all the tracks you need. And they're much cheaper on Amazon or in your local music shop (if there are any such shops left).
Anyway, we now have the figures: EMI sold two-million Beatles singles in iTunes in the seven days since the entire back catalogue first appeared. And as for albums, their sales topped 450,000. That's the total sales for ALL The Beatles albums...ALL of them. Worldwide.
OK, it's a lot of digital music to flog in a week. But it didn't knock the reformed Take That album off the No.1 slot in the UK. The highest-placed single was Hey Jude and that only managed to stagger into the bottom of the Top 40 in the Fab Four's homeland.
It looks to me like a marketing exercise gone wrong. Why release the entire Beatles catalogue of music in one go? Drip feeding us may have worked better.
So the "day you'll never forget" is...nearly...forgotten.
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