The Beatles finally release their music digitally - through Rock Band

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http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081...-rock-band.html

The Beatles finally go digital for MTV's Rock Band

By Frank Caron | Published: October 29, 2008 - 10:20PM CT

The battle between Activision, makers of Guitar Hero, and MTV-Harmonix, makers of Rock Band, has been a battle for the bands, quite literally. The two have for years now been engaged in a war for exclusivity with some of the world's all-time greatest musicians in an effort to build the ultimate set lists for their respective music-based video games. But the most sought-after and coveted trophy in music, The Beatles, lay unclaimed. That is, until now. MTV, wielding the power of its parent Viacom, has claimed the Liverpool legends for itself, meaning that Rock Band will be the exclusive platform for the advent of the first ever digitally-distributed Beatles tracks.

Ars was one of many outlets that received an invite to an announcement scheduled for Thursday morning at 10am EDT. In advance of the press conference, however, the Wall Street Journal confirmed the industry-rattling news.

The importance of this event vastly transcends gaming. This is the first time that the Beatles music has been licensed for release in a digitally-distributed format; the songs have never before been officially licensed for release online, even through popular services such as iTunes. The implications of what this could mean for Apple Corps' business decisions moving forward could be staggering, but at this time only the deal for Rock Band has been announced.

Needless to say, Beatles exclusivity is a astronomic win for MTV. Activision and Harmonix, the two premiere corporations behind the plastic instrument revolution, have been butting heads over musicians for quite some time now. Beyond the inclusion of contemporary favorites like the Foo Fighters, both Activision and Harmonix have been vying to sign some of the biggest labels in rock music, including the likes of The Who, Guns n' Roses, Metallica, and AC/DC. This war peaked at this year's E3 event, when the two battled head to head with exclusive deals for Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero: World Tour.

<continued at source...>

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+Frank B. Subscriber²

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Isn't Ringo Starr a fictional character from that one episode of the Simpsons? I was almost thinking of Disco Stu for a minute :laugh:

You better be joking...

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afusion

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If you've heard of the Beatles you should know who Ringo Starr is. Everyone else does (literally).

Only two of their songs I've listened to "Strawberry fields" and "Sargent Pepper" I never really cared for them which is why I never dug out any of the band's bio.

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Only two of their songs I've listened to "Strawberry fields" and "Sargent Pepper" I never really cared for them which is why I never dug out any of the band's bio.

I don't and never did like them,(any of them) but I knew who they were.

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MikeChipshop Member

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I'm with you on this.

I know who the Beatles are but not every HAS too and if someone doesn't know who Ringo Starr is or thought they were all dead doesn't make it an 'Epic fail'

Give the guy a break

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afusion

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You think that The Beatles are dead but don't know who Ringo Starr is...

Not everything has to makes perfect sense to everyone. Some people just don't think about other things but hear about other details which happens to be " I thought the beatles are dead" which they are not (Gary7 clarified)

@Chips: Finally some slack! :laugh:

I mean you guys take this group as if it were like Jesus The Prophet or something. It's just music..

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jerzdawg

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The Beatles have licensed songs to MTV Networks' Rock Band videogame series, according to several people familiar with the matter, a coup for the Viacom Inc. unit in its battle with rival Activision Blizzard Inc. for supremacy in the world of rock-and-roll videogames.

MK-AS698_BEATLE_D_20081029222111.jpg

MTV Networks' Rock Band videogame series is to include songs from the Beatles. From left, the members of the British rock group: John Lennon, George Harrison, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.

The deal, which is set to be announced on Thursday by Viacom's MTV and the band's own Apple Corps Ltd., makes the Beatles the next and biggest major band to license its songs to a music-oriented videogame, joining Aerosmith, Metallica, AC/DC and others.

Rock Band and Activision's Guitar Hero have engaged in heated competition over exclusive rights to use music by major acts, entering multimillion-dollar licensing agreements with a handful of the biggest names in the business.

The games let players use plastic game controllers, shaped like miniature musical instruments, to simulate playing rock and pop songs. Players are scored on how well they hit notes.

The Beatles represent the biggest prize to date in the category. Not only do they have the best-selling album catalog of any band, they haven't yet licensed their music for sale by download services such as Apple Inc.'s iTunes Store.

Continued @ Source

I am not sure I would want to pick up an entire game of only Beatles songs.... I would much rather have them be released as DLC...

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