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[Geoff]

[size=18]Beatles' Back Catalogue Available to Download for Free[/size]
The only catch is that before listening to each song you'll have to endure several minutes of musicological discussion in Norwegian

By Sean Michaels
January 6 / Guardian.co.uk.

The music of the Beatles is finally available as a free and legal download, that is, if you don't mind a load of Norwegian at the beginning.

NRK, the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, is in the process of digitising Var daglige Beatles, or Our Daily Beatles, a series of radio broadcasts from 2001. As each of these broadcasts becomes available, they will be added to a podcast and accessible as a free, fully-licensed download.

At the time, the station aired 212 short episodes, each dedicated to a single Beatles song. Before every song was played, journalists took three minutes to discuss the track's genesis and they did it in Norwegian.

Effectively, every track in the Beatles official catalogue will be released this month by NRK. But each song, from P.S. I Love You to I Am the Walrus, is preceded by three minutes of decidedly un-Liverpudlian commentary.

As improbable as it seems, this is the first time that the Beatles' material has ever been available as a legal download. Despite years of negotiation, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and other Beatles stakeholders have been unable to come to an agreement with online distributors or even, perhaps, among themselves. McCartney said last year that talks were "stalled", and an EMI rep told CNet News that the problem lay with Apple Corps, the Beatles' label.

Even for those keen on Beatles songs with Norwegian intros, time is short. NRK's licence is good for just four weeks, after which time the podcast's musical content will be excised.

The first 14 episodes are available now, with the remaining 198 to be posted before the end of January.

---

According to NRK's website, though, the podcast has already been stopped:

http://www.nrk.no/beatles/

http://nrkbeta.no/nrk-pulls-our-daily-beatles-podcast-because-of-rights/

[Penny Lane]

Yes, I heard about this via Entertainment Weekly (don't laugh), but only after the downloads had been pulled.  

Also, last week I talked to some older Beatles fans who were very surprised to hear that the Beatles' music is not available for downloading.  This topic still makes me want to tear my hair out in frustration.  It's just utterly ridiculous and embarrassing that one of the most beloved bands in the world can't even get their music on the Internet.

Anyway, my husband seems to think the Beatles' remastered music will be coming out soon (based on rumors), but I'm not holding my breath.

[Bobber]

I still don't get all the fuzz about the catalogue being available for download. It's all there if you know where to find it.

[Rook]

I still don't get all the fuzz about the catalogue being available for download. It's all there if you know where to find it.

I look forward to it because the catalogue is supposed to be remixed/remastered before it is available on Itunes...maybe this is part of the delay? In any case I hope they don't rush that particular process.