APPLE MUSIC DOWNLOADS

The Beatles set up Apple in part to offer a friendly label for upcoming artists. The Beatles website has announced that the back catalog of Apple releases will now be available for download. Although the Beatles songs are not included, many rare albums that various band members produced and played on will be included. The official press release:

Apple Records catalogue remastered and reissued on CD and digital
download - Classics Set For Release on October 26th

Launched by The Beatles in 1968, as the new outlet for their own
recordings as well as the music of an eclectic roster of artists - James
Taylor, Badfinger, Billy Preston, Mary Hopkin, Doris Troy, and Jackie
Lomax among them - who were all personally brought to the label by The
Beatles (individually and/or collectively), Apple Records made popular
music history from the very moment it opened its doors.

Four decades later, Apple Corps Ltd. and EMI Music raise the curtain on
remastered CD and digital download releases of 15 key albums from the
Apple Records catalog. All 15 titles will be released on October 26th,
2010. Most of the physical CDs will include bonus material. Together,
the 15 albums represent the first ever Apple Records releases to be
available via digital download.

In the revolutionary spirit of 1968, The Beatles' explosive
musical output (characterised by their double-LP White Album) was only
exceeded by their fascination with what they saw and heard going on
around them. Five years into The Beatles' reign, Apple Records
afforded them the unique opportunity to sign new (and established)
artists who appealed to each of them. In turn, the introduction of an
artist on The Beatles' record label was an imprimatur taken very
seriously by fans across the universe.

Apple Records' utopian artist-orientated mission immediately set
it apart, as the first operation of its kind in the major-label sphere.
Diversity was celebrated, and artists were encouraged to record and
release their music in a friendly creative environment. Apple developed
a distinctive graphic aesthetic, from its legendary
'apple-core' logo to its advertising and merchandising, in
the process setting a subtle new benchmark for the industry to follow.

From 1968 to 1973, Apple Records bedazzled the world with a rainbow
spectrum of releases - and fans were unusually well-informed about
individual involvements of The Beatles with nearly every project.
1968's self-titled debut album by Boston-based singer-songwriter
James Taylor, for example, features Paul McCartney and George Harrison
on "Carolina In My Mind". Paul was instrumental in bringing
the Welsh chanteuse Mary Hopkin to Apple, and produced her debut single,
"Those Were The Days". Badfinger, also from Wales, was still
known as The Iveys when they recorded "Come And Get It",
written and produced by Paul (for The Magic Christian movie soundtrack).

The Beatles had been fans of Billy Preston ever since seeing him in
Little Richard's band in Hamburg in 1962. George went on to
produce and play on Preston's Apple debut, That's the Way
God Planned It. Harrison was one of the producers and played (along with
Ringo Starr) on Doris Troy's self-titled Apple album. George also
produced and played (with Paul and Ringo) on Jackie Lomax's debut
album, Is This What You Want? featuring the Harrison composition,
"Sour Milk Sea".

John was much taken with the music of The Modern Jazz Quartet, who
released the only two jazz albums in the Apple catalogue. Ringo was
intrigued by the music of contemporary British classical composer John
Tavener, and his Apple album, The Whale has become one of the most
sought-after Apple collectibles of all time.

Each of the 15 albums in this bumper batch of Apple Records releases has
been digitally remastered at EMI's Abbey Road Studios in London by
the same dedicated team of engineers behind The Beatles' recent
remastered catalogue releases of 2009.