Pink Floyd albums removed from iTunes after record contract expires

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scorgiman

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From AppleInsider:

"Numerous albums from legendary rock band Pink Floyd have disappeared from Apple's iTunes store, along with other digital storefronts, following the expiration of a contract between the band and its record label.

Pink Floyd's contract with EMI covering albums post "Dark Side of the Moon" expired on June 30. Since then, some of the band's most popular albums, including "Wish You Were Here," "The Wall," and "Animals," were removed from the iTunes Music Store, as well as Amazon.com and other digital music sellers.

However, the albums -- and some individual tracks -- can still be purchased through the "Oh By the Way" studio album boxset available on iTunes, and released in 2008 by EMI. The set includes both discs of "The Wall," which can be purchased separately from the box set, but "Wish You Were Here" can only be bought as part of the $139.99 total collection.

According to Gibson Lifestyle, Pink Floyd has won a lawsuit against EMI in March, allowing it to block the sale of individual songs on services like iTunes. A High Court in the U.K. determined that the band could "preserve the artistic integrity" of whole albums by not breaking them up into individual song sales.

Pink Floyd and EMI are no longer under contract for later albums, but earlier titles like "Dark Side of the Moon" remain under the label's control. In addition, while EMI can no longer press CDs for titles like "Wish You Were Here," the company can sell its remaining stock of physical albums.

EMI also owns the catalog for The Beatles, and it has been said the issue over single song downloads has been what has kept their tracks from being sold iTunes thus far. Yoko Ono, widow of John Lennon, said earlier this month that fans should not expect the band's catalog to become available on iTunes anytime soon. "Don't hold your breath," she said."

Could this mean that the band would have more freedom to release a surround WYWH if they wanted to?

Do we have any opinions here about groups like Pink Floyd and the Beatles choosing not to make there albums available for download because they don't want to allow purchasing of single tracks?
 
Do we have any opinions here about groups like Pink Floyd and the Beatles choosing not to make there albums available for download because they don't want to allow purchasing of single tracks?

Yes, we do! I am all for it - the music should be listened to in its context and not be butchered as is "normal" today. What? How old I am? Hmmm... Born in the fifties...
 
One of the main problems The Beatles have with EMI (and most likely Apple itunes) is royalty payments.
EMI has a habit of wanting to pay The Beatles as little as possible. like about the same royalties that they were originally paid for when each lp was first released in the 1960's...the original contracts were terrible , virtually slave contracts..they improved over the years, but EMI constantly wants to find a way to pay them 1963 royalties for 1963 lps etc..
It was the main reason the mono and stereo box sets took so long to be released..the remastering didn't take forever to do, but negotiating a decent royalty for the remastered releases did.
On the other hand EMI also likes increasing it's prices to record companies that would like to licence EMI owned material....(can't remember the exact figure but it was heading to be over 25% of recommended retail price) and whenever they do that they usually don't pass the extra dollars onto the artist..
add that to Pink Floyd's beef about selling individual tunes , especially on releases where some tracks are joined together, and you're lucky to get anything from a big named act involved with EMI
 
Yes, we do! I am all for it - the music should be listened to in its context and not be butchered as is "normal" today. What? How old I am? Hmmm... Born in the fifties...

You have just as many people interested in listening to an entire today than you had in the fifties. You have just as many people interested in buying individual tracks now as you had people only interested in buying the 45's right up until the decade i was born - the 70's.

I am a huge supporter of the album format, and will only listen to and put entire albums on my IPhone. I understand artists need to make money any which they can, though, and that the concept of the "single" is what exposes new and casual listeners who still pay for their music to music they're not familiar with or not fully sold on. I'm absolutely fine with anyone putting individual tracks for sale, even the supposed "album" bands of the 70's.

Looks like people still have the option of buying the individual tracks through the box set, though, so it's a bit of a non-issue.
 
Do we have any opinions here about groups like Pink Floyd and the Beatles choosing not to make there albums available for download because they don't want to allow purchasing of single tracks?

Not sure about Floyd, but do we have any proof that The Beatles, a band that up until 1967 concentrated on nothing but singles, cares about individual tracks being sold?

Having been brought up in the 45 era, I don't see a problem with it. Music was actually a lot more fun before the dreaded "sit down in "The Thinker" pose and play an entire album" era.
 
Could this mean that the band would have more freedom to release a surround WYWH if they wanted to?

I'd guess that they had enough "freedom" to release the WYWH surround anytime they wanted to, but it is not unheard of that when a contract is near expiration certain things get put aside until a new deal is in place....so I am cautiously optimistic that this may be a positive thing for the WYWH release.
 
As far as I'm concerned, the songs that were originally released as singles should be available on iTunes as individual songs. While that only leaves you 8 or 10 songs from a largely album band like Pink Floyd, it's ridiculous that one of the greatest singles bands of all time won't allow those songs to be purchased individually.
 
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