Bangaloreans are thrilled the band's lifetime work will be out on a pen drive soon, but are complaining it is priced way too high

A limited edition pen drive, packed with all that the Beatles ever did, will be out soon. Bangalore fans of the 60's rock 'n' roll band are excited about it, but many think its Rs 15,000 price tag is a bit too high.

"I won't buy it for Rs 15,000; I have got a whole lot of (Beatles) albums," said C K Ravindranathan (60), an engineer. "The asking price is a bit too much."
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The green apples: EMI and Apple Corps Ltd have are offering a thumb drive that has every Beatles song.

You can pre-order it

Apple Corps Ltd and EMI Music, who this December will be introducing the Beatles USB drive in a limited edition of 30,000 pieces each priced at nearly $300, or about Rs 15,000, are urging customers to pre-order since there are only so many pieces available.

But few in the city seemed interested in pre-ordering the apple-shaped device with a green surface.

With a storage capacity of 16 GB, the 'Green Aluminium Apple' will consist of 14 Beatles albums, 13 mini-documentary films, liner notes and rare photos. It is compatible with PC and Mac.

"I would buy it. But I won't go to the extent of pre-ordering it," said Samyuktha K (21), a sub-editor with an English news website.

The portability factor scored with Samyuktha, who said she would go for it even if she already had everything the thumb drive offers.

"You can't always carry all your albums; sometimes you don't remember where they are," said the journalist. "This is more convenient."


Nice, but costly

Not everyone felt it was worth it obtaining the device at the price being asked for it.

"For India, the price is too much," said Kamal Raj P (27), who works as a technical writer. "When you can download it on to a pen drive for Rs 400, why would you buy this?"

The view was echoed by many, though all agreed it would be nice to have a compilation like the one on offer except, it was not "affordable".

Again, those who did want the drive did not seem interested in pre-ordering it.

"Obviously, I will go for it, though I will not pre-order it on the Internet," said DJ Salman.

The music professional in him added that buying was always better than downloading. "I don't support downloading. I prefer original tracks," said he. "This will make a nice collector's edition."

For many old Beatles fans, buying the USB drive was not necessary since they said it was the music that mattered and that they had built a good collection over the years.

"They (Beatles) are very special. They have touched the hearts and souls of millions of people all across the world," said Dr Pendakur Anand, an allergy specialist.u00a0 "But I have Beatles in my system, I have CDs. I don't need to buy this."

Many also felt that youngsters were so familiar with the Internet today that it would hamper the prospects of the Beatles thumb drive.

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