Well, 9.7% unemployment did not create a ridiculous trading volume day, even though it felt as though the entire trading universe awaited the 4:00 closing bell for the long weekend.

Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 9,440.66 +96.05 (1.03%)
S&P 500 1,016.32 +13.08 (1.30%)
Nasdaq 2,018.78 +35.58 (1.79%)

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Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA)'s MTV Games and The Beatles' Apple Corps Ltd. announced during a conference call this morning that a new interactive music game based on The Beatles catalog is in development for a late 2009 release. The untitled game will be based on the career of The Beatles and the platform for MTV's Rock Band, but will not be a spin-off of the popular series as rumored previously. According to Billboard, "the game is designed to take users on an 'experiential journey' through the Beatles' career, music and vision. It will also include new types of interactive gameplay associated with the Beatles' imagery in addition to its music."

U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein dismissed Yoko Ono's (the former Beatle wife you wish would go away) lawsuit claiming that anti-evolution "documentary" Expelled played a 15-second clip of John Lennon's song Imagine without her permission.

The judge ruled that, were the case to go to trial, it would likely be found that the excerpt from the song fell within fair-use guidelines.

The defendants were Premise Media Corp. of Dallas, Rampant Films of Sherman Oaks, Calif., and Rocky Mountain Pictures Inc. of Salt Lake City, and the film is narrated by Ben Stein, who is intelligent in some areas (business) and less intelligent in others.

December has not been very kind to music company EMI Group PLC (OTC: EMIPY) and its new owners, the private equity group Terra Firma, led by Guy Hands. The company has come under fire from former artists like Paul McCartney and Radiohead, and it is now rumored that current artist Robbie Williams is looking to go elsewhere after the release of his next album.

Paul McCartney, that famous Beatle, recorded with EMI for 45 years before ditching the label earlier this year to sign a one-album deal with Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX) Hear Music label, then a new creation. McCartney came out last week and vented his dissatisfaction with EMI, though his comments were about the company before Terra Firma bought a majority holding. In an interview with The Times, the former Beatle "accused EMI of being unimaginative" in the demands that he market the album by speaking to multiple journalists and giving EMI at least six months to market the album. McCartney also bashed the excessive time for marketing by comparing his situation to former band mate John Lennon's success at releasing a song in 1970 within a week of recording it. Reportedly, Guy Hands agrees with these sentiments about EMI under former CEO Eric Nicoli, but that does not change the fact that artists since the takeover have voiced similar concerns.

In the same queue, Radiohead has now come out slamming Terra Firma's policies and pushes at EMI since the takeover. If you remember, Radiohead created quite a stir in the music industry, the blogging world, and news outlets, after announcing in early October to immediately release In Rainbows, the band's seventh album, as a digital download first. Since then, the band has signed deals to release the album physically as a CD, but not with the band's longtime label EMI. The band's guitarist Ed O'Brien recently gave an interview to BBC "claiming that [Terra Firma] do not understand the music industry." Apparently, EMI was the band's first choice to release the album, but the new owners were unwilling to give the band what they wanted, and "didn't understand where a band like us sat on a label like EMI, so they weren't able to give us what we needed." Front man Thom Yorke mirrored these sentiments commenting, "now you're in a situation with private equity firms, [Terra Firma] looks at music as something to buy and then sell on."

In an interview with Billboard, Paul McCartney has revealed that The Beatles catalog is ready to go on sale digitally next year. He has also revealed that the delay "has been due to contractual issues as well as deliberate planning by all parties involved." Unfortunately, the motivation for McCartney to divulge this information came in a press release for his new DVD and the re-release of his new album Memory Almost Full, where he also pleads with fans to buy the new version and the original version released earlier this year, claiming that they are not the same thing. (It almost makes me feel like a tool since I have both.)

The big news here though is the release of The Beatles digitally, which has the potential to completely revolutionize the music industry, just like the band did in the 1960s. Of all the major artist catalog's not available on the web, The Beatles is perhaps the most striking. Other holdouts such as Led Zeppelin and Radiohead have made the leap in the last couple of months. This release will theoretically be much larger, considering that fans will be buying second, or third, or fourth copies, while new listeners more attuned to digital releases will be buying this music for the first time. The potential for massive music sales are very exciting.

The rumors that The Beatles were going digital in 2008 have been long standing, at least since the 2007 release became impossible in recent months (the solo Beatles catalogs seemed to take precedence). No official word from a Beatle or representatives had been issued until now, which means this interview has given credence to those spreading rumors (luckily, it also validates their claims). In the end, all you need is love and for fans in 2008 they will have what they have been hoping would happen for some time.

Billboard reported yesterday that Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX)'s Hear Music will re-release Paul McCartney's Memory Almost Full album next month, with "new" tracks and a live DVD. The album was originally released in early June and debuted in the Billboard 200 at number 3, before going gold in the United States and achieving similar status around the world. For Starbucks, the album signaled a promising start for the coffee chain's music label, which enjoyed another high chart placement last week with Joni Mitchell's Shine debuting at #14 (Mitchell was the second artist to sign up with the label).

This second release of the McCartney album features three so-called "unreleased" tracks, but careful fans and listeners should note that "In Private," "Why So Blue" and "222" were originally released as a limited edition bonus disc upon the original June release. For the new release, these tracks are added to the original 13 and bundled with a live DVD that features the performance from a June concert at London's Electric Ballroom. It also comes at a time when McCartney is only performing at limited venues and is not embarking on the same kind of stadium world tour that followed the release of his two previous albums in 2002 and 2005.

Though the album signaled success for Hear Music and gave McCartney his highest charting album in ten years, it is all too clear that the coffee chain is hoping to gain more from this second release of Hear Music's initial success. The live DVD is a nice addition, but forcing fans and listeners to buy another copy of the album is far too reminiscent of what music lovers have been subjected to in the music industry. And it seemed like Hear Music was going to break that mold and be more in tune with listeners.

According to a Variety report last Friday, Sony Corporation's (NYSE: SNE) Columbia Pictures was barred from making any reference to The Beatles in marketing Julie Taymor's film Across the Universe. SonyATV Publishing, the firm that manages the rights to Lennon/McCartney songs allowed Revolution Studios to adapt songs by the group into a story set to the backdrop of the changing atmosphere of the 1960s (the era when the songs were written and performed). The report also indicates that critics' reviews mentioned the band, which was outside the scope of the marketing limitations. Coincidentally, so was the Variety report.

While it is no surprise that mentioning The Beatles was barred from marketing the film, any viewer who sees the movie and asks "what's this about" must surely be from another "universe." The stylized type for the name of the film on advertisement posters is modeled after The Beatles own mid-60s "logo" and the tagline is "all you need is love" after all. Of course, Sony marketing's Valerie Van Galder points out this much to Variety but emphasized that the studio did not need to "remind audiences of the film's connection to one of the most venerable brands in the history of entertainment."

All the same, Variety fails to mention that the surviving members of that brand, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, were "pleased" by the film. Despite the apparent ease that the studio and filmmakers had marketing the film without mentioning The Beatles, one has to wonder (naively perhaps) why SonyATV Publishing would have disallowed the connection when the publishing and distribution company's are both under one corporation. If you wanted to make as many connections as possible with The Beatles, the production company even shares its name with a song. In the end, it hardly matters that marketing the film was barred in this way -- it is not that hard a connection to hide.

The film was expanded from a "limited engagement" this weekend, managing to pull in $2.05 million.

After the massive announcement last week lowering the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone price and announcing the new models of the iPod family, MacWorld is reporting that the media giant is planning another announcement, this time in London on September 18. The event will take place at the Regent Street Apple Store and is by invitation only apparently.

The rumors about the event are centered around two things: the UK release of the iPhone, or an announcement that the iTunes Store will offer The Beatles catalog very soon. Once again, the speculations about Apple go straight for The Beatles, and once again the more likely reason is the most probable. But the report also indicates that "mum is the word" and that seems to be causing the most confusion. PC Advisor comments that the announcement for a UK carrier for the iPhone is hardly "mum" in the face of almost three months of U.S. sales.

Whatever the announcement is, we have another four days to continue speculating. Maybe we can all be shockingly surprised and see another new product or service released, but it just seems safe (considering the track record) that Apple is only going to announce a service new to the UK and not necessarily as exciting. In any case, while that is certainly not hopeful for UK residents at least they can be assured that any Beatles announcement should take place in London... or Liverpool.

Until then, "Your Mother Should Know" what the announcement entails...

With Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL)'s announcement coming soon, the rumors surrounding The Beatles coming online to Apple's iTunes store have been circling the internet a while. Still, we should remember that all previous information from the Fab Four's camp always stipulated that if the band's songs ever went for sale online, the deal would not be exclusive to any retailer, including iTunes.

Chatter about an Apple/Beatles deal for the sale of digital tracks have been out there for some time, but not as intense (or so it seems) since Apple and EMI reached an agreement in early April that secured the use of tracks without Digital Rights Management technology. Before that announcement, it was presumed that a Beatles deal was in store, to the disappointment of many fans. In late May, a similar thing happened when Paul McCartney's solo catalog went up for sale in promotion of his new album. The catalog was supposed to be some kind of lead-in for The Beatles to show up online at a later date. Since then, two other solo Beatles catalogs have gone online, with all indications that the Fab Four will be arriving in 2008, but without an official announcement as of yet.

So here we are today, and again we hope that rumors The Beatles will be for sale digitally will come true. Frankly, as hopeful as I am, an announcement with Apple would certainly be prudent, but with the hype surrounding the event, it hardly seems that The Beatles will be the major announcement ... if they are part of it at all. I see the next generation iPod being unveiled today, maybe with The Beatles catalog being one of many new features available on the device. Of course, that is just wishful thinking...

There has been a lot of speculation over Apple Inc's (NASDAQ: AAPL) special event today, The beat goes on. Everybody wants to know what Apple will reveal, and anything from a new iPod to newly signed artists coming to the iTunes Music Store have been rumored. There is definitely a buzz of interest ahead of today's event.

The beat goes on will be held this afternoon starting at 1:00 p.m. EDT, and knowing Apple, it should live up to the surrounding hype. Most of the media speculation has been forming around Apple's highly successful iPod. Analysts everywhere are expecting to see Steve jobs come out and introduce the world to the new iPod or iPods. According to MacDailyNews, chances are that a new iPod is exactly what we will see today.

MacDailyNews is suggesting that we could see a new lineup of iPods inspired by the new features that were in the recently released iPhone. A couple of new features that the site is suggesting we may see in the new iPods (should we see new iPods of course) would be a flash memory drive, and a possible WiFi receiver, and touch screen interface.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) shares are up over 2.6% in premarket action and will likely start the session strongly, recovering from yesterday's 4.11% drop. Midday update: Indeed, Apple shares are up $5.79 or 4.57% to $132.61. The company officially announced yesterday it will be holding a "special event" on September 5, "The Beat Goes On. "

Since Apple usually introduces new products ahead of the holiday season, the Street and consumers expect just that, introduction of several new products. According to Theflyonthewall.com, Goldman Sachs said it expects a new family of iPods to be announced during the event, a week ahead of expectations. The new iPods will likely include greater functionality at current price points and Goldman believes this will create another opportunity for upside in the second half of 2008. Recommends to buy.

Bloomberg also reports that the release of new models of the company's iPod media player is expected during the event. Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster said, "I would say 99 percent it's a new iPod." Sales of the iPod and music sold through Apple's iTunes store accounted for 40% of revenue last quarter.

Apple 2.0 actually speculates that "this will be the day that Steve Jobs announces that The Beatles -- the best-selling musical act of all time, at least in the U.S. -- have finally come to the iTunes Music Store." Only yesterday BloggingStocks' Richard Driver posted that Ringo Starr's post-Beatles EMI (LSE: EMI) catalog went up for sale digitally yesterday on digital retailers such as 7digital.com and Apple's iTunes Store.

What do you think Apple will announce on September 5? Whatever it is, almost everyone agrees it will spark new life in this already phenomenal stock.

Ringo Starr's post-Beatles EMI (LSE: EMI) catalog goes up for sale digitally today, making him the third Beatle whose solo catalog has become available on digital retailers such as 7digital.com and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL)'s iTunes Store. Starr's EMI catalog, which includes four albums released between 1970 and 1974, joins the rest of his catalog in those online stores. Today also marks the release of a new compilation CD from Ringo under the EMI banner to promote the online offering, the first time the drummer has been with the British music giant since his Beatle contract ended in 1975.

The solo catalogs of Paul McCartney and John Lennon have been for sale for three months and two weeks, respectively, though the digital sale of Ringo's catalog was announced shortly after McCartney's became available. Lennon's catalog was issued online quite unexpectedly earlier this month. The only catalog not available digitally is George Harrison's, which has seen new CD remasters released periodically over the past seven years. Of those remasters, only last year's update of Living in the Material World and this year's reissue of the Traveling Wilburys collection are available from various digital retailers.

Rumors continue to circle that The Beatles catalog itself may be issued by the end of this year or sometime early next year, but nothing has been confirmed or denied. In the past year alone, The Beatles have experienced a kind of celebratory resurgence after the opening of the Las Vegas Cirque du Soleil show, Love, and the release of the accompanying soundtrack album. The month of June witnessed various solo and related projects from the Beatles members charting high in the Billboard 200 (the only Beatle missing was Ringo). The new digital catalog and accompanying compilation may change that fact, giving all four Beatles hit albums in 2007. A film due for release next month will additionally explore the music of The Beatles and the time period they lived in.

A number of Beatle John Lennon's solo albums went up for sale on Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) iTunes Store today, including exclusive video content on a number of the singer's post-Beatles albums reports NME.com. The Lennon catalog joins Paul McCartney's as the only two EMI-based Beatles-related catalogs for sale on the giant music store. Fellow Beatle Ringo Starr's solo EMI catalog will join those two, in addition to his own post-EMI catalog, later this month.

The inclusion of Lennon's solo catalog comes barely two months after the Instant Karma: Save Darfur album featuring covers of Lennon solo tracks debuted at number nine in the Billboard charts. Lennon's catalog includes all of the recent Yoko Ono supervised remastering work that has been made on several albums since 2000, including the singer's landmark Imagine album. The tracks are available as part of the iTunes Plus service, where all EMI-based tracks are free of Digital Rights Management technology.

Billboard.biz is heralding the addition of this catalog as the resumption of speculation about when The Beatles catalog will be made available online, something that has been rumored in the works as a serious notion since at least January of this year. As far as speculation goes, the addition of one more solo Beatle catalog clearly makes the argument for a soon to be released Beatle catalog online stronger. As reported so often, a date is not available, but it still seems safe to presume that 2008 is the earliest any release could occur.

All you need is love.

And lots of money. And lawyers. And luck. And more than a little moxie.

The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE: PG) somehow got the OK to use the classic Beatles song, "All You need is Love," to peddle its Luvs brand of Bear Hug Stretch Diapers.

According to a piece in BrandWeek, the national campaign is meant to keep the brand relevant and "top of mind" for mothers. Ad execs are quoted as saying the song will help break through all the diaper advertising "clutter" and communicate to moms that Luvs diapers are all you need to keep your baby happy. Credit Saatchi & Saatchi, NY for brainstorming the campaign.

Somehow I don't think John Lennon had nappies in mind when he penned this hit in one day in 1967, for the Our World program, the first worldwide satellite television link. It was broadcast to 26 countries and seen by some 350 million people. Judging from history, I believe he was thinking about world peace.

But it's a different generation. Now one of the world's most recognized and beloved songs will be selling diapers. Score one for commerce, I suppose.

If you can stand the stink.

Today marks the 50th anniversary (July 6, 1957) of Paul McCartney meeting John Lennon in a church fete (fair) in Liverpool to form the core partnership that would become The Beatles. In 2007, there has been no "official" Beatles release or related material, but the world still looks on and music fans still buy up products by and related to the four members. Last month, Paul McCartney's 21st solo album Memory Almost Full debuted at #3 in the Billboard 200, while the collected works of the George Harrison supergroup Traveling Wilburys debuted at #9. Meanwhile, the John Lennon-fueled, various contemporary artists-filled Instant Karma compilation designed to aid Darfur debuted at #15.

While these numbers may be impressive for the products of the former Beatles more than 37 years after the band broke up, the music industry slowly and loudly falls apart in self-defeating decline. Luckily, we do not (and frankly cannot) look to The Beatles to save the industry. It's likely the band could not anyhow, despite the potential sales the digital catalog that may one day see light of day might pull in. With the uncertainty of that release on the horizon, all that is left now is the current state of the music industry, but it is not unlike the music industry that The Beatles entered. True, the early 1960s were not a state of decline, but when The Beatles started, the emphasis was not on albums. It was on singles. Is there any difference in the digital tracks that see higher downloads than albums? There might be, but fundamentally there is not.

If The Beatles catalog is ever released it will likely sell the same way many albums today sell. Yes, fans will buy the newest remastered versions from digital stores and relish in the joy of buying a Beatles album in a new way for the first time (akin to 1987's CD versions?), but new listeners (and maybe even some fans) will buy up their favorite tracks, destroying the core albums in the same way that albums are not bought today. Everyone says the album is dying, but in the industry it may never have been meant to be.