Anthology II

Just to follow up from a previous post, there have been so many people continuing to grumble about Apple’s tactics on the release of all the Anthology stuff.

So, a few comments:

• the extra episode of the tv series: as we mentioned, there is no stated running time for this, and it could be ten minutes. It consists of the remaining three Beatles rehearsing and recording the new songs and talking about their careers with the band. A lot of this is on the extra DVD in the box set, maybe all of it is? There will be no physical release of the series, so you cannot ‘own’ it. If you don’t have Disney+ and you do have the box set, it may well not be worth your money subscribing only to find you already have the material. But who knows?
• Apple are trying to appeal to a new and young audience: the Anthology music series consists of rehearsals, outtakes, bloopers and so on. New Beatles’ fans will want the main albums and genuine compilations like 1+. Anthology appeals to die hard fans, completists, and Apple know it. These are the people who are being rinsed by Apple.
• Apple are not being fair for long time and existing fans: they don’t have to be. They can do what they like. If no-one buys this stuff, or at least not enough to turn a profit, that’s their problem. If you are a fan and you already have it all, you really don’t need to buy it.
• They should release the new songs separately: there are no new songs at all. On the CD set 4 there are 13 ‘new’ tracks which are just cobbled together different versions or part versions of things we have already have. There are some new remixes (well, two apparently) selling for £300+ on vinyl.