The Beatles on iTunes & Does Anybody Really Buy Music Anymore?

OK…I get it. The Beatles are awesome. I have 4 of their 17 albums. While they aren’t in regular rotation anymore, they are among my favorites. The White Album is currently on my iPhone. So, is it amazing that the Beatles showed up in iTunes yesterday? No way. When it showed up on CNN and the New York Times, I was amazed. It is just music that existed previously that is now available in a new format. So, that is cool and all, but did it deserve all the hoopla? I don’t think so.
But, let me share something amazing. In my office there are two 20-something receptionists. As I walked past them yesterday, just before 10am Eastern, they were speculating about what was going to happen at 10…one suggested that it was iTunes via the web. “It would be like Pandora!” she said. The other opined, excitedly, “I hope it’s The Beatles. I’ve never had a CD player, so I never bought their music.” The other said, “I have them on Pandora…”.
Hmmm…wishing to have the music, wishing to have it online…sounds like Pandora is winning here. Granted, Apple kicks ass with user experience and devices (my office is currently littered with an iMac, iPhone, iPad and MacBook…so I groove on their stuff…) but the receptionist microcosm is making me think that Apple is on the edge of losing the next wave of music consumers because of the insistence on owning rather than consuming. They don’t buy music…they want it, they love it, they love Apple devices but they want access, not ownership…