EMI has confirmed it will sue US-based digital music service BlueBeat.com which, as reported yesterday, is controversially selling the Beatles catalogue as MP3s at 25 cents per track.
Music Ally spotted that the US site was selling The Fab Four's music, not available on any legit download platforms, last week, and EMI litigation has been expected ever since. The Beatles' music is yet to go digital because of ongoing royalty disputes between co-owners EMI and Apple Corps. The former had confirmed on Tuesday that it had not made an exception for BlueBeat.com.
It's thought the EMI lawsuit will accuse BlueBeat.com of infringing more than just its Beatles copyrights. Some have questioned the legitimacy of the whole BlueBeat.com download operation, which has spun out of a long-standing US online radio service of the same name.
Selling tracks at 25 cents each dramatically undercuts all of BlueBeat.com's competitors, and even if it was the digital music firm taking the hit by offering such a discount (ie it was paying labels the going wholesale rate), some speculate that the record companies would be nervous about signing up to a service which pushes the standard download price point down just as they are trying to sneak prices up through the newish variable pricing structure on iTunes.
Ironically EMI's confirmation that it was suing BlueBeat.com over their sale of the Beatles catalogue digitally coincided with an announcement from the major that they would be making the Fab Four's music available - legitimately - as digital music files for the first time (outside of the 'Rock Band' game, that is). Though said announcement isn't quite as exciting as you might think. EMI will release an apple-shaped USB drive containing all fourteen of the recently released remastered Beatles albums for two hundred quid. The mini hard drive will also contain artwork, documentaries and some other extras. The USB whatnot will be released on 7 Dec, just in time for Christmas.