BEATLES FOR SALE

The Beatles catalog will be digitally re-mastered for the first time, and available for worldwide CD release by Apple Corps and EMI on Sept. 9, 2009, to coincide with the Fab Four’s Rock Band video game.

Each of the CDs is packaged with replicated original U.K. album art, including expanded booklets containing original and newly written liner notes and rare photos. For a limited period, each CD will also be embedded with a brief documentary film about the album. On the same date, two new Beatles boxed CD collections will also be released.

The albums have been re-mastered by a team of engineers at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios in London over a four year period utilizing “state of the art” recording technology alongside vintage studio equipment. The result are being touted as “the highest fidelity” seen since the catalog’s original release.

The collection comprises all 12 Beatles albums in stereo, with track listings and artwork as originally released in the U.K. and Magical Mystery Tour, which became part of The Beatles’ core catalog when they were first released as CDs in 1987. In addition, the collections Past Masters Vol. I and II are now combined as one title, for a total of 14 titles over 16 discs. This will mark the first time that the first four Beatles albums will be available in stereo in their entirety on CD. These 14 albums, along with a DVD collection of the documentaries, will also be available for purchase together in a stereo boxed set.

Within each CD’s new packaging, booklets include detailed historical notes along with comprehensive recording notes. With the exception of the Past Masters set, newly produced mini-documentaries on the making of each album, directed by Bob Smeaton, are included as QuickTime files on each album. The documentaries contain archival footage, rare photographs and never-before-heard studio chat from The Beatles.

A second boxed set has been created with the collector in mind. The Beatles in Mono gathers together, in one place, all of the Beatles recordings that were mixed for a mono release. It will contain 10 of the albums with their original mono mixes, plus two further discs of mono masters (covering similar ground to the stereo tracks on Past Masters). As an added bonus, the mono Help! and Rubber Soul discs also include the original 1965 stereo mixes, which have not been previously released on CD. These albums will be packaged in mini-vinyl CD replicas of the original sleeves with all original inserts and label designs retained.

This clearly paves the way for eventual digital distribution of the catalog, with the release noting “discussions will continue” for that eventuality, though adding, “there is no further information available at this time.”