The Beatles USB

One of the few bands not to release their music as mp3 downloads are The Beatles. In fact, at this point I don't know if there are any other major bands who have not done so. When the announcement was made that The Beatles music was going to come out in mp3 format most fans probably assumed that this meant that they were going to be sold as downloads but that's not the case, instead The Beatles USB memory stick will be making it's way into many Christmas stockings.

The Beatles USB flash drive contains the remastered Beatles in Stereo CD box set except clearly in a much different form than 16 CDs and 1 DVD. This one flash drive that you can easily hold in your hand contains all of the same elements as that stereo box set.

The USB contains all of the Beatles stereo remasters in that box set two times because it holds 320kbps mp3s and 24bit FLACs. I'm sure you have experience with mp3s (and 320 mp3s are the highest quality that mp3s come in) but how about those FLAC, what what is FLAC? Essentially FLAC files are considered to be "lossless" which means there is not a loss of sound quality like with mp3s or other "lossy" formats. And because these particular FLACs are actually 24bit instead of the 16 bit files that are on CDs, they are actually of better sound quality than compact discs.

What this means is that this Beatles USB includes the highest quality versions of The Beatles remastered stereo mixes! Of course, this might change if they decide to release these remasters on Blu-Ray or DVD but at the moment this is the audiophile holy grail when it comes to The Beatles remasters.

What about the mono mixes? These are not included on this USB memory stick. You still have to buy The Beatles Mono Box Set to listen to the mono mixes.