The Beatles: Meh to iTunes, I'm going to Amazon

There's been a lot of buzz about the Beatles' music finally coming to Apple's iTunes, albeit much of the fanfare is from Apple itself. Some fans are aflutter with the feverish excitement usually reserved for tweener girls meeting Justin Beiber after a concert. Me, I'm not so impressed.

Especially because, as I was notified by Dealnews, my favorite deal site, Amazon is currently selling all 13 of the Beatles remastered albums on CDs for significantly less than the digital tracks offered on iTunes.

For example, most of the single-CD albums, such as "Revolver," "Let It Be," "Abbey Road" and "Rubber Soul," cost $8 on Amazon; iTunes is charging $13 for each. The double-CD "White Album" is $12 on Amazon, compared to $20 via iTunes. And the complete original remastered CD boxed set is $130 instead of $149 on iTunes. Yes, Amazon charges a shipping fee, but buy a few CDs and hit the $25-or-more floor for free shipping, and that's taken out of the equation.

Given the choice, getting the CDs are a no-brainer, at least for me. I get higher-quality WAV files for playback on my pricey home-theater rig when I'm at home—and I can rip (DRM-free) at any quality I want for my PC or portable players.

So sorry, Apple, I'm not buying into the hype. Although you promised that yesterday would be a day I'd never forget, I have a feeling that looking back, I'll have been more excited that our company cafeteria served meatloaf than the fact that I could get higher-priced, lower-quality Beatles music from iTunes.

Then again, I do love meatloaf.

—James K. Willcox