iTunes gets Beach Boys

Apple has once again scored another exclusive for distributing digital songs online--a marketing strategy that has helped the company build the world's most popular digital music service. EMI is preparing to release a digital collector's version of the Beach Boys Pet Sounds album, which Macworld UK reports will be exclusively available through the iTunes Music Store. Pet Sounds: The 40th Anniversary, a collection of 90 audio tracks, will ship on August 28th via iTunes exclusively for one month before the collection is sold by other online music services. The report noted that a physical version of the collection will later be made available in two separate versions -- one version as a set of colored vinyl records and the other as a CD collection featuring exclusive video footage on a bundled DVD. Described as "the greatest album ever made" by some reviewers, the special collection is a revised edition of the twelfth studio album from the band -- originally recorded in 1966. It includes all of the original tracks and a large variety of rare or unheard material such as sessions and vocal mixes.

by MacNN Staff