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Beatles tracks once only found as bootlegs to be sold as legal downloads in move that could set a trend for annual releases
With the absolute minimum of fanfare and the greatest of reluctance, 59 Beatles songs are being released next week by Apple Records.
There won't be the often talked about 28-minute version of Helter Skelter, nor the "holy grail" 1967 performance of Carnival of Light. But there will be four extra versions of She Loves You, five A Taste of Honeys, three outtakes of There's a Place and two demos of songs given to other artists.
On Tuesday Apple will release the downloads of Beatles recordings which have long been bootlegged but never been made legally available. They include outtakes, demos and live BBC radio performances. A spokeswoman for Apple would only confirm that the 59 tracks are being released. As to the company's motivation: "No comment." Is it because of the copyright laws? "No comment."
One reason for that, says Beatles blogger Roger Stormo, is that the record company does not really want to release the material in the first place – its hand is being forced. "The only reason why they are doing this is to retain the copyright of this material," he said.
The release is because of recent changes in European Union copyright laws. Previously artists would retain copyright for 50 years after a song was released. That was increased to 70 years but another change makes unreleased material free of copyright – and therefore in the public domain – 50 years after it has been recorded.
Industry observers say the Beatles release could be one of many annual issuings of previously unreleased recordings.
The new – or old – Beatles recordings include 44 unreleased songs recorded for BBC programmes in 1963. It includes I Saw Her Standing There recorded live for Saturday Club, presented by Brian Matthew, in March; You Really Got A Hold On Me recorded for Pop Goes the Beatles in September; and Love Me Do recorded on the BBC's Sunday morning programme Easy Beat in October.
Then there are unused takes from recording sessions of songs including There's a Place, A Taste of Honey, Do You Want to Know a Secret and Misery (takes 1 and 7). The final tracks are of demos of songs the band recorded and then gave to other artists: Bad To Me, which was a No 1 hit for Billy J Kramer and the Dakotas, and I'm In Love, which went to No 17 for the Merseybeat group the Fourmost.
The release could well become a trend. Last January Sony released a four-CD set of 86 Bob Dylan tracks and was unashamed about the reason, giving it the subtitle The Copyright Extension Collection Vol 1.
It was clearly not for general consumption, however, because Sony released only 100 copies and you would now have to pay more than £700 on eBay if you wanted one.
Sony followed that up recently with the release of The 50th Anniversary Collection: 1963. Again it is only 100 copies - this time on six vinyl LPs – and it contains unreleased recordings and outtakes which now benefit from copyright.
Many Beatles fans will be delighted at the opportunity to get their hands on the tracks although it remains to be seen how keen Apple will be – and how long they will be available. Stormo, based in Norway, runs the "WogBlog – all things Beatle" blog. He said he was lukewarm about the release. "They are only releasing what they know is floating about and they are keeping the rest for their vaults – they are kind of doing the fans a bit. It's only material that people already have in their bootleg collections ... we're getting the least possible material."
He said he would be extremely excited if Carnival of Light, which was performed just once at the Roundhouse in north London, was released. Then there is the 28-minute version of Helter Skelter, recorded in the autumn of 1968.
Even more fans would love to see the 1977 EMI LP Live at the Hollywood Bowl released on CD or download. "People are asking: why aren't they releasing this?" said Stormo.
Another question is how good the newly released tracks will sound.
"The hardcore Beatles collectors who are trying to obtain everything will already have these," said Stormo.
The "official" versions should sound better if they are from the record company's original tapes – rather than the more likely copies of copies of copies which have circulated over the years. Whether they do will be discovered on Tuesday.