Today Apple issued a press release announcing the immediate availability of John Lennon's solo works on the iTunes Store. Because his music is part of EMI's catalog, Lennon's music is available in iTunes Plus, the higher-quality, DRM-free section of iTunes, for the corresponding higher price of $1.29 per song. A search of the iTunes Store showed that the freshly added Lennon material is not available in the regular DRM section of the store. Considering the full albums only cost $9.99, the same as they would in the regular iTunes Store, it's a good deal. I would expect most Lennon fans will want the full albums anyway. Several videos at $1.99 also are available, including ones for "Imagine," "Mind Games" and "Merry Xmas (War is Over)."
An oddity I noticed: although the press release says 16 works are available, I counted only 8 albums on the new John Lennon page. Even if you throw in the six videos, that's only 12 things. Perhaps more is coming shortly. Or someone in Apple's PR office can't add.
The important thing is that Lennon's solo material has now joined Paul McCartney's solo material, added in May, on the iTunes Store. Lennon... McCartney.... Why does that sound familiar? Oh, yeah. The Beatles. Perhaps you've heard of them. Kinda popular in their day. Still not on iTunes. Could this be one of Apple's crazy marketing strategies? You know, give us solo McCartney in May, solo Lennon in August, the bulk of the Beatles catalog, say, in November – just in time for Christmas?
Steve, please please me!
UPDATE: As of Tuesday evening the John Lennon page on iTunes has the promised 16 albums. I wonder why the collection was incomplete earlier in the day?
