Oh, OK. Paul McCartney hasn't become a digital cyborg from the future; instead, Paul McCartney has decided to sell his solo back-catalogue via digital downloads for the very first time – which you have to admit is a bit like becoming a futuristic killing machine.
No? Still not with us on the cyborg thing? Never mind. Anyway, Paul McCartney has announced that all of his post-Beatles albums will be available to download online sometime this year. It's a move that has hit the headlines because it's expected to be a precursor to digital Beatles downloads finally being made available legally – you didn't think all this excitement was over the prospect of shortly being able to download C Moon, did you? In other news, Paul McCartney has revealed that he's to become a half-human half-robot mechanoid warrior from the 37th century.
No, not really. But we had you for a moment, didn't we.
Something's happened to Paul McCartney recently. Maybe he's scared that all that one-legged backflipping is making Heather Mills more famous than him, maybe the thought of paying Heather Mills £10,000 a day has made him reassess his finances or maybe he's looked around and realised that someone has invented a futuristic machine called 'the computer', but Paul McCartney has spent the last year waking up to new ways that he can distribute his music.
In the past that would mean Paul McCartney singing songs directly into space or into the ear of a soon-to-be slaughtered Canadian seal pup, but now Paul McCartney seems to be getting wise. Hot off the success of his Classical Brit Award win, McCartney first revealed that his new pop album Memory Almost Full will be sold exclusively at Starbucks and now he's gearing up to sell his work as a solo artist and with Wings online as digital downloads. The LA Times reports:
The announcement spans his first solo effort, "McCartney," in 1970, through his Wings hits "Band on the Run" and "Wings at the Speed of Sound" and on to his 2005 Grammy-nominated "Chaos and Creation in the Backyard." It also covers albums he recorded for Columbia Records from 1979 to 1984, because the rights to those works reverted to EMI / Capitol when he returned to that fold upon leaving Columbia.
The news that Paul McCartney is to start selling downloads will come as a sharp thrill to the two remaining Paul McCartney fans who a) haven't just copied songs from his CDs to their computer or b) just downloaded them illegally for free anyway. And only 18 months after John Lennon went digital, too.
But let's not do this news down, because not only will it mean we'll soon be able to individually pay to hear Paul McCartney tracks like Monkberry Moon Delight and And Remember To Be… Cosmically Conscious, but news about Beatles downloads will no doubt follow soon after – finally allowing everyone to pay to download Hey Jude even though they've already heard it a million billion times already and own it on all kinds of bloody compilations anyway.
And then, maybe then, our dreams of legal Ringo Starr downloads will finally be realised, too – our iPod is all the weaker for not containing (It's All Da-Da Down To) Goodnight Vienna, you know.
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Superpower says
Who cares?,
The egocentric mop ailienated his fan-base in the early ’90’s with his brilliant “American Express Only” purchase requirement of his concert tickets. Then, his school-girl-sissy-mary quips towards George Harrison reinforced my opinion that Paul was simply not a very likable guy. Legend or not his man needs to retire. It seems as if the hippy dippy generation cannot get enough of itself.
Kent says
“…finally allowing everyone to pay to download Hey Jude even though they’ve already heard it a million billion times already and own it on all kinds of bloody compilations anyway.”
Isn’t it about perpetuity? When music officially goes digital, it’s the beginning of an official goodbye to hard copies. What does it matter that millions of people have already bought CDs or ripped their music from them? They, along with everyone reading this, will all be dead within 100 years, so we may as well celebrate the launch of the world’s most famous music on a medium that’ll outlive our dull, relatively insignificant lives.
PS This is not Geoff Baker looking for his old job back, honest.
Ppppppp says
Why on earth would I want to listen to any of his rubbish music anyway? He is nothing without Lennon but a deluded, talentless, not-very-nice old man.
Gilbert Wham says
What we need is a Khmer Rouge-style execution fest to rid us of these fucking Baby Boomers. It’s the only way, trust me.
gary says
Lennon was nothing without McCartney. Why do you think he wanted him in his band? It sounds like there are a lot of little snot nose kids here who know nothing about music. Will your favorite musician be around in 40 years selling out concerts. Will they be a billionaire? Hardly. McCartney paved the way for all musicians after the Beatles!.