I've been a faithful Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI) shareholder for a while now. Sure, I've thought of booking my profits at times, but so far, I've held tight on my long-term position (note: I did do a quick trade with the stock earlier in the summer).

The Guitar Hero franchise is one of the reasons why I keep holding the stock. I figure a lot of units tied to the brand will be sold this holiday season. However, there is a looming threat. Viacom (NYSE: VIA) and Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS) are set to release The Beatles: Rock Band. The street date is September 9, and analysts will be watching the early sales very carefully to see how the dynamic shapes up.

In February 1964, John glanced out his airplane window as the jetliner slowly approached the terminal at the then newly-renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and saw what looked like thousands of people gathered, packed together, mostly female, mostly young, waving frantically.

They were waving their hats, their hands, pushing against the dozens of New York City policemen, who tried, mostly in vain, to maintain some semblance of a police line.

Paul and George then quickly rushed to their airplane windows and saw the crowd, as well.

Ringo then glanced over from his seat on the other side of the plane, and upon seeing the crowd, mumbled, "I guess the governor or do you think maybe the president has just arrived?"

It was at that point that John, Paul, George, and Ringo suddenly realized who the crowd had gathered for.

**
On January 20, 2009 an enormous crowd - - perhaps 2 million or maybe more - - will gather in Washington, D.C. to see Barack Obama inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States. And they'll no doubt be lots of cheers and people waving frantically.

Access Hollywood reports that "Heather Mills has been "fired" before she ever set foot in Donald Trump's boardroom."

Ms. Mills, best-known for her divorce from former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney that included a demand for a $300,000 per year clothing allowance and a trial that involved Ms. Mills dumping a jug of water on McCartney's lawyer and shouting "You're a bitch! You're a traitor to your sex! How could you do this to another woman?"

Apparently her high-maintenance ways were also a turn-off to NBC insiders, one whom reportedly told The Sun that "The network was originally very keen on getting her involved. They thought it would be a clever move, attracting lots of publicity for the show... But her demands were ludicrous and it soon became clear that getting her involved would be a headache."

Here's the best part: she demanded a clause in her contract stipulating that she would make it to the finals!

I'm hugely disappointed that Mills won't be on Celebrity Apprentice. Having Heather Mills and Donald Trump on the same show would make for the most delightfully detestable hour of television since. . . ever. Maybe they should reconsider giving O.J. Simpson a spot. Some other celebrities I'd like to see on the most obnoxious show on television:

• Former Supreme Court Nominee Harriet Miers
• Congressional Sex Scandal Bad Boys Larry Craig and Gary Condit
• Amy Winehouse
• Former Enron chief Jeff Skilling (Let him out of jail early and call it community service!)
• John Rocker (Former pitcher who managed to insult just about every minority in a 2000 Sports Illustrated interview)

The Financial Times reported last week that representatives for The Beatles, Activision Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI), and MTV Games, a division of Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA), are in talks about developing Beatles-themed video game versions of Guitar Hero and Rock Band "in a move that could pave the way for a broader licensing of the Fab Four's catalog." Although the final deal would eventually be worth several million dollars, it would have to win over both Apple Corps and the EMI Group, the two companies that oversee the band's business interests and the master recordings.

The Beatles have been one of the major artists to resist any move into the digital world, but if such a deal were to occur it would likely happen simultaneously with any move by The Beatles into digital stores and the digital market. In the past year and a half, numerous rumors have appeared that cited 2008 as the year that would see the move, including comments made by Olivia Harrison, George Harrison's widow. Unfortunately, no such appearance by the band into stores like Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iTunes or Amazon.com Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AMZN) MP3 Store has happened even with a new management team led by former Sony BMG executive Jeff Jones.

Any deal would send a massive shockwave through the music industry and no doubt come with numerous marketing and advertising techniques that have become popular and successful in recent years. Although many Beatles purists and fans might be put off by an iTunes-themed commercial featuring The Beatles and the band's music, the exposure provided by such a method would increase awareness of the band to younger and newer audiences.

Management for The Beatles and Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) have downplayed the rumors that began last weekend with reports that Paul McCartney had approved a $400 million deal with the iTunes Store to exclusively distribute The Beatles catalog.

The iPod company strongly dismissed the claims yesterday as "unsubstantiated speculation" according to Billboard, following similar remarks by The Beatles' labels EMI and Apple Corps. Unfortunately, it seems that the rumors about The Beatles joining the digital markets are going to continue to bounce around.

Since last February, when the trademark dispute between Apple and The Beatles Apple' Corp. ended, the rumors have popped up every few months or so. McCartney always seems to be at the center of the rumors , following an interview with Billboard last spring that suggested the deal was "virtually settled." And last summer other voices representing The Beatles' stated that the material would become available soon and all signs pointed to 2008 as the most realistic.

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.

English band Pink Floyd is set to release a 16-disc box set in December that features the band's entire studio catalog as CD reproductions of the original vinyl records, Billboard reported yesterday. Unfortunately, the set is limited to 10,000 copies and will be available in the United States only as an import. It is unknown whether the box set will be reproduced in digital stores or not and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL)'s iTunes Store has created complete digital box set's for catalogs in the past.

This news is not very descriptive about availability for the new album, but it has me wondering how many physical box sets are to be produced as the music industry moves closer and closer to fully embracing digital outlets. With the releases of s new Bob Dylan retrospective set and the coming Led Zeppelin catalog set, both available on iTunes and as physical CDs, what is the market for the CD versions? The Pink Floyd physical-only set (as far as is known at this point) takes this further with a price tag of $250.

A cursory glance at iTunes will tell you that the catalog is already available from iTunes Plus as DRM-free (Digital Rights Management) tracks, including the previously released 40th anniversary edition of Pink Floyd's debut album. With that knowledge, this box set seems marketable only to serious collectors and importers. The price tag and difficulty of availability make it hardly an item that the casual listener and even devout fan can seriously consider checking out. One has to wonder if EMI has a similar plan in store for The Beatles when that remastered catalog is available.

Following the solo catalogs of Paul McCartney, John Lennon, and Ringo Starr, George Harrison has joined the digital market this week.

Despite being the last solo Beatle catalog to be made available, Harrison's catalog is the most recent to be upgraded and remastered for physical release, and those editions are the versions now available in digital stores. While that is no surprise, what it means is that there are two albums actually missing from the new digital catalog: 1974s Dark Horse and 1975s Extra Texture (Read All About It). It seems apparent from remarks by Harrison's widow, Olivia, that the remastering work will not cease because of this move.

All that remains now is for The Beatles catalog to be made available, but that is still rumored for some time in the new year. With that addition, quite a body of work will be available for fans and listeners digitally, even if the solo catalogs are not true successors to the group's catalog. It is unfortunate that the solo catalog's would be made available before the group catalog, especially for new fans that have no guide to understand how the music of the solo catalog's follows and makes distance from the output of The Beatles. Some might see that as a positive in light of views that The Beatles were a John or a Paul show, but that is what it is.

The reality of the situation is that The Beatles managing company Apple Corps Ltd. was in dispute with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) for so long, pushing off other projects like remastering (which now seems to coincide with the pending digital release). The Apple vs. Apple case ended in April 2006 in favor of the iPod makers. Apple is reportedly one of the major companies in talks with The Beatles representatives to get the band into stores like iTunes.

As a fan of The Beatles, I write about them or related topics frequently (although never as much as I think about the group). Therefore, it should be no surprise that I am thrilled about tomorrow's release of the new film based around The Beatles songs: Julie Taymor's musical Across the Universe. If you haven't heard about it, I'm surprised. The film has been heavily promoted and has received the approval of both living Beatles: Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. And while the new movie is going to be an event when it is released tomorrow, it also caps off a year that seems rooted in The Beatles.

Since the opening of the Cirque du Soleil show Love in 2006, the band has been much more mainstream. Unfortunately, that is not always success (Paul McCartney's divorce), but I don't want to talk about that aspect. With the show came a corresponding soundtrack album and the beginning of serious rumors that The Beatles would be available digitally. Though the rumors started earlier this year, nothing has happened and signs point to 2008 for a digital Beatles release. But 2007 has still been very good for The Beatles and related products. June saw the release of three albums, new and reissues, which charted high in the Billboard 200 while selling very well. The summer also saw the addition of post-Beatles solo catalogs online for McCartney, Ringo Starr, and John Lennon. Rumors abounded that the catalogs are paving the way for digital release of The Beatles in the future.

But as successful as those items have been, and don't let me minimize that, the marketing for Across the Universe has been everywhere. While critics may "do their thing" in analyzing the film, as fans we can enjoy the seeming uniqueness of the project and the scope in which it occupies. Because the film is not released yet, and I haven't seen it, I won't offer any kind of assessment, but the soundtrack is available.

Despite the lack of a deal announced with The Beatles to bring the Fab Four's music online yesterday, Steve Jobs has reported that he sees the possibility within a half-year's grasp. The Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) chief has been working with The Beatles own Apple Corps Ltd. (administered by EMI Group PLC) to make that a possibility, even though his own iTunes Store won't be the exclusive retailer. Maybe now we can put off all the rumor talk until sometime next Spring, although that seems unlikely.

I blog on this rumor on BloggingStocks routinely, mostly because it interests me, but also because The Beatles are one of the biggest music groups still not in the digital music realm. Many of their contemporaries and followers are out there, and now three of the four member's solo catalogs are available. Any hope for a deal in that six months might hinge on whether the entire remastered George Harrison catalog is introduced to digital retailers. After June's release of the Traveling Wilburys collection and its major success, Harrison's may be the one catalog that makes it online before The Beatles' does.

In either case, for the millionth time I hope the rumoring stops about The Beatles coming online (in time for the Holiday season especially) before the close of 2007. Of course, in line with yesterday's press conference and The Beatles final conference in 1970, the beat will likely keep going on, and on until well after The Beatles are in iTunes and other digital retailers. Meanwhile Apple stocks closed lower than they did yesterday, falling $1.75 to $135.01 in today's trading.

Billboard reported yesterday that former Beatle Ringo Starr will issue his entire Capitol Records (an American record label under EMI Group PLC (LSE: EMI) catalog digitally in late August. Joining fellow Beatle Paul McCartney (who just turned 65), Ringo is the second of the four members to issue a solo catalog online, and it will be released without Digital Rights Management technology, just as the current EMI catalogs, including McCartney's, are available.

The release will encompass the four post-Beatles albums Starr recorded for The Beatles own Apple Records and Capitol Records in the early 1970s. Billboard notes that this "move raises further speculation that the Beatles catalog is next in line for digital release," but that excludes the catalog's of John Lennon and George Harrison, neither of which have seen digital release despite recent remastering reissues in the last five years. Lennon and Harrison were originally with EMI through the end of their "Beatle" contracts in 1975, moving to different labels after that. Both artist's catalogs have now reverted to EMI via the executor's of their estates (their wives).

Despite the constant rumors about The Beatles impending release, it is still nice to see this kind of development. No news may be made official about The Beatles, but one more step is one more indicator as Billboard says. In any event, the current rumor is that 2008 will be the year of Beatles reissues.

Billboard reported this afternoon that Paul McCartney's latest album, Memory Almost Full, debuted at #3 in the albums chart this week, with 161,000 copies sold. A strong showing for McCartney on new label Hear Music, founded by Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX), is also a nice indicator for Starbucks, which fellow blogger Georges Yared wrote about this morning. The album, which has received rave reviews, debuted at #5 in McCartney's home country of England last weekend.

As far as touring in promotion of the album, the former Beatle has only announced two secret shows, one in London last week and one tonight in New York. A full blown tour, reminiscent of his 2005 or 2002 tours is dependent on the outcome of his divorce, which is currently on hold according to reports. The 2002 tour was chronicled by the live album Back in the U.S. which debuted with 224,000 copies sold in its first week according to Billboard.

While not a #1 release, such a strong debut by "new" label Hear Music should shake up the music world, primarily because so many copies of the album were sold at Starbucks locations. The album is available at most retailers and from online stores, but the marketing Starbucks put into the release included a "global listening party" where the album played continuously in stores the day it was released, making every coffee buyer a listener if not a buyer.

Yesterday was the fortieth anniversary of the release of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (it was actually 40 years ago today in the United States). To celebrate the anniversary, The Beatles' website launched a new mini-site for the album. Meanwhile, numerous news agencies and online sources commented on the anniversary, but where these news pieces fall short -- and I admit I have not read them all -- is that they fail to remember just how "landmark" the actual release was in London. It basically went on for the entire weekend, which this weekend in 2007 happens to mirror exactly with 1967.

The release culminated in a performance of the title song by Jimi Hendrix at Brian Epstein's theater a mere two days after the album was released. As the manager of The Beatles, Epstein had access to the album long before it was released and also entertained other musicians and artists with listening parties. Listening parties for the general public would have been held in record stores and people's homes. With the influx of digital technology and digital devices (like MP3 players) and the "traditional" record store's continual fall from existence, what we think of as a listening party could just be you or me alone with our headphones on. In that way an album like Sgt. Pepper would not be a very global event, even if a large audience has access to it. Our conception of the album as a device to bind us together in a moment has been lost.

When you think about Sgt. Pepper though, it's hard to disconnect it from the Summer of Love and everything else going on in 1967. That is not an altogether bad thing, but remember that even The Beatles as individuals did not stay with the album for long. As a group they moved into new projects right away (the One World performance of "All You Need Is Love" and the Magical Mystery Tour film), but in the 1970s Lennon especially would write a song that bashed the album and especially McCartney's influence in it. More recently Ringo Starr has commented that he preferred the album's predecessor and follow-up. As the artists and performers of Sgt. Pepper we should not expect them to have stayed with the album for too long. After all, it took them six months to create it, which in 1967 was an extremely long time to produce an album.

It was twenty years ago today... well not exactly, but it was 1987 and five of the world's most influential musicians came together to record a b-side for George Harrison's "This Is Love" single. Harrison , along with Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, and ELO's Jeff Lynne, recorded "Handle with Care" and created supergroup history. You may not remember the Traveling Wilburys, or even have known those artists were involved, but in 1988 their album Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 reached #3 on the Billboard albums chart and sold more than 2 million copies.

For more than 10 years that album along with the follow-up two years later, have been unavailable. This summer Rhino Records, an imprint of Warner Music Group (NYSE:WMG), will re-release both Traveling Wilburys albums as well as bonus video material in a special reissue set. It's an interesting re-issue for this summer, not because it does not deserve to be re-issued, but because it is part of the re-issuing of George Harrison's post-Beatles career by his estate (here is the press release).

Warner caught a lucky break with these reissues because most of Harrison 's material reverted to EMI (he was originally with the London-based label as a Beatle and a solo artist). It was assumed that these two albums also reverted, but those assumptions were obviously wrong.

This reissue will do quite well because it was a collaboration between five talents and received such high praise upon its initial release. By comparison Harrison's solo material was often hit or miss.

I blogged about it before, and it looks like I will blog about it again, but the rumors about The Beatles move to the digital world are even stronger this week, or so it seems. Numerous sites are reporting (including NME and Billboard) that EMI and The Beatles have come to a settlement regarding the 18-month royalties case between the two. Accordingly, the assumptions that the band is one step closer to becoming available in digital stores are also included in the reports.

This is certainly nothing new, and especially for this week considering that when Aspinall stepped down earlier in the week (see this blog) the rumors were strong. In either case, I think it is smart to avoid jumping too far on the ship that The Beatles will soon be downloadable. If anything this is exactly what the reports also call a step in the right direction. The speculation is at best only speculation, despite if members of either party come forward to state that they are working on The Beatles becoming available in digital stores.

Fans have known that much for a while now. Just remember that while you are hopeful, it will still be some time before it occurs. After all, many Beatles fans would also like to see new remastered CDs for the albums as well. Making one available without the other just doesn't make much sense, especially when the generation tied to The Beatles first may have physical products in higher preference than the digital ones (I know I do, and I am not of that generation).