October
30
Beatles Video Game Update: Only 45 Songs
A Beatles video game produced by MTV Games will be released in time for the 2009 holiday season.
The partnership is the first time Apple Corps., EMI Music, Harrisongs and Sony/ATV Music Publishing have agreed to present the Beatles' music in a video game presentation. Executives from Apple, MTV and game developer Harmonix announced the game Thursday in London, giving few details beyond the game’s existence, noting further announcements would come in the next few months.
The game will not be part of the Rock Band franchise.
"The game is in development," said Jeff Jones, CEO, Apple Corps. "We don't want to talk about how it will turn out a year for now. We’re in the process of creating the game."
Game developers will be able to select 45 songs from the Beatles catalog recorded during their 1962 to 1969 tenure within EMI for inclusion in the game.
Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr Olivia Harrison and Yoko Ono Lennon have been part of the conversations regarding the design, layout and roll out of the game. Discussions, both creative and financial, between Apple Corps. and MTV began 17 months ago and the first contracts were signed about four weeks ago.
Giles Martin, who produced "Beatles Love" with his father George, the Beatles' producer, will oversee the music on the release. He emphasized "we are trying present the songs as they were played, adhering to the (original) mix."
Neither Jones nor Martin would talk about whether the Beatles music, which has not been touched up or remastered in 20-plus years, would be remastered for the game. The Beatles songs are still not available digitally, to which Jones noted "all I can say is we’re still working out the details."
“To me it’s the biggest puzzle and so illogical that the Beatles music is not available for use on MP3 players,” Martin Bandier, CEO and chairman of Sony/ATV Music Publishing, told Daily Variety. “Maybe the fact that this deal is done will offer an impetus to Apple and EMI” to finalize a deal.
Use of the Beatles master recordings have been highly limited over the 38 years since the band called it quits. McCartney, Starr and the widows of George Harrison and John Lennon approved the remixing and reconstructing of the Beatles records for the Cirque du Soleil show "Love" and opened the vaults for the "Anthology" film but that's about it.
Use of their songs has become a bit more common, most prominently on two "American Idol" shows last season and in the films "Across the Universe" and "I am Sam." Sony/ATV handles the music publishing of the vast majority of songs written by Lennon and McCartney.
The music publisher was the last to sign the deal and while no financial figures were released, Bandier said they asked for as much as possible.
“There have been mutterings from artists and songwriters that they are not being offered their fair share in videogames, but the game makers have the leverage,” he said. “In the world of rock there are thousands of tracks that will work but when you get into the world of unique artists that leverage shifts, tremendously, to the artists and songwriters.
“We signed a deal that would be considered very rich by the videogame company but fair for the artists. It will have online implications that will be enormous.”
With the Beatles inking a deal for a video game it leaves one key hold out from the classic rock era, Led Zeppelin. The British hard rock quartet, rumored to be reforming without lead singer Robert Plant, was one of the first acts approached when Guitar Hero was in prototype form. Then, and now, they have rejected uses of their songs in games.
The Rolling Stones moved their post-1970 catalog to Universal Music Group earlier this year and the music conglom said digital was a priority, suggesting a Rock Band game was likely.
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