Norwegian Beatles Podcasts Taken Down, Apple Corps. Says Downloads Are "Not Authorized"

Those Norwegian Beatles podcasts, noted as the first time the Fab Four's music has been available as a legal download, have been taken down after the podcasts broke some obscure Norwegian broadcasting law. The NRK, or the Norway Broadcasting Co., said, "The podcast is not available at the moment. Please check back for updates." Only the podcasts for the Beatles Please Please Me and With The Beatles were posted before the hammer of international law dropped. According to the NRK, Norwegian radio law states that "NRK can not podcast programs with foreign music if the radio program was broadcast more than four weeks ago." Since the original broadcasts of "Our Daily Beatles" was in 2007, this turned out to be an issue.

So why doesn't the NRK just, you know, rebroadcast the series so they can post the podcasts? "This is a question people have asked several times already. We could have done it, but choose not to," the NRK said in a long explanation and breakdown of what went wrong with the Beatles deal. Plus, the Beatles music comes under a deal that NRK has with the IFPI, which represents international record companies, and as luck would have it NRK and IFPI's contract expired December 31, 2008.

Even if the NRK ties up all its loose ends and reposts its Beatles podcasts, the threat of Apple Corps. still awaits. "It has recently been reported that a Norwegian broadcasting company, NRK, will make Beatles music available for download via a series of podcasts.  These podcasts are not authorized by Apple Corps Ltd," the company said in a statement. So after a blink of optimism, it remains that no legal downloads of the Beatles music are available online.

Related Stories:
• The Beatles' Catalog Finally Goes Digital Thanks To Norwegian Podcasts
• Beatles to iTunes "Stalled," Says McCartney
• The Immortals: The Beatles

• 
  MUSIC The Top 25 Teen Idol Breakout Moments
• 
  MOVIES & TV 'Game of Thrones': The Show Vs. the Books
• 
  POLITICS Matt Taibbi: Facebook IPO vs. Shareholders
• 
  VIDEOS Exclusive: Garbage Rip Through 'I Think I'm Paranoid'

Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter