With the Beatles

We love the Beatles, don't we?

I mean who couldn't love those Scouse moptops with their jangly pop, or the slightly psychedelic stuff?

Here, in the world of boxes, we have been making the box for THAT release since I have been here. And quite frankly I have seen their logo more times than I care for and am of the opinion that it is indeed possible to have too much of a good thing. Doubly so as the local radio station they pipe round the factory has regular Beatles songs. With added Michael Jackson now of course, too.

So, after all those boxes, it is good to see the product hit the stores last week; and shocking to see the remasters set, the stereo version, retailing for some £180 in some places. That's £13 per album, which I don't suppose is bad; other than most people who will be buying this will already have every song on CD and on vinyl. And as the early albums were barely over 30 minutes long.

Anyway, most seem quite happy, if not overjoyed with the set, which means more orders for us and the whole process begins again with thousands more to make.

It is a trend that record companies have been releasing music most of us already have in multi-disc versions, when they should really be looking for new talent. Otherwise they won't be able to sell multi-disc versions of the Ting Ting album in two decades time.

Not that people would buy it of course. The current generation is used to getting things for free, and actually buying music or a film will be alien to them, with disasterous results for the music and publishing industries. This is also a generation that does not read newspapers either, choosing to get their news free from Yahoo or other news sites. Or their celebrity gossip which counts as news.