No Beatles digital downloads on Sgt. Pepper's 40th anniversary

 by Martin Belam, 1 June 2007

Well, you can't always be right.

Back in April I wrote an article about the Beatles CD reissue programme, which started in 1987. It was most successful chartwise in getting the Sgt. Pepper album back at number 3 twenty years after the original issue of the album.

You can't have missed the fuss today around the 40th anniversary of the landmark album.

Back in April I predicted that today would also mark the announcement that The Beatles' music would finally be becoming available as digital downloads.

Well, seeing as a couple of hours ago I got the official Beatles newsletter in my inbox, and it makes no mention of such a thing, I guess I was wrong.

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Special Sgt. Pepper microsite, yep.

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Limited edition anniversary t-shirt - check.

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Surprisingly for a band so concerned with their copyright that right-clicking the images on their website brings up a warning, there are also special "Making of..." Sgt. Pepper videos on such notorious dens of musical piracy vice as MySpace and YouTube.

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But commercial Beatles MP3 / AAC / ATRAC / WMA / files?

Not a sniff.

Maybe when I'm 64.

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