2009 has been a very active year for the Beatles, despite the fact that they broke up more than 30 years ago. Following the release of the Beatles Rock Band and remastered Box Set collections, soon 30,000 fans will be fighting for the chance to purchase the Beatles’ Apple USB, due out on December 8th. This is a limited edition “box set” in the shape of a green aluminum apple, which has a removable USB drive that contains the same music as in the stereo box set. Both the box and the USB will give you a complete Beatles collection, but the much smaller USB package actually has a lot more.
The music on the Beatles Apple USB is the same as the stereo box in terms of albums and songs included. It’s got the stereo mixes of every major studio release from the Beatles’ career, including the classic albums you’d expect. Revolver, Rubber Soul, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles (White Album), Abbey Road and Let it Be are all included here, as are the early albums. All the hits and B-sides that weren’t on a normal Beatles album, like “Hey Jude” and “Revolution,” are also part of this set. The main advantage of the USB version is that it contains all of this music in two formats, neither of which is used on CD releases or box set CDs. The first is high-quality 24-bit FLAC 44.1 Khz format sound files, which are a step up from 16-bit CD quality, so audiophiles who think CDs sound too “cold” finally they can get their Beatles fix in a format that suits them.
Second, if you buy the Beatles Apple USB instead of the box, you’ll get mp3 versions of the tunes, in a high-quality, DRM-free 320kbps format, unlike most iTunes mp3s. DRM stands for Digital Rights Management which places restrictions on access to content, so it’s better not to have it. This is a significant release as it represents the first time that the Beatles have decided to release some of their songs in mp3 format. To this day, you still can’t buy Beatles tunes on iTunes or other download sites that sell mp3s, but you can get them all on the Beatles’ Apple USB and transfer them to your iPod from there. The final temptation of the Apple USB Beatles is that there will only be 30,000 of them for sale as of now, so they’ll probably be collector’s items.
If you don’t use CDs anymore, or are an audiophile, and are looking to get your entire Beatles collection in one go, the Apple Beatles USB is a great choice, especially since it has USB functionality plus higher-quality music files. CD formats. All of the visuals, including album art, extended liner notes, and a 13-minute documentary are also on the Beatles’ Apple USB, so there’s really nothing missing compared to the boxes except those pesky CDs.