About the only band in the world not to release their music on iTunes are The Beatles. At this point I’m not sure that any other major label band hasn’t done it.

When it was announced that The Beatles were finally releasing their music digitally on December 8 of 2009 most people probably assumed that this meant that their music was going to be available but that’s not the case, instead The Beatles USB memory stick which will be making it’s way into many Christmas stockings.

The Beatles USB memory stick contains the remastered Beatles in Stereo box set except clearly in a much different format than the CDs and DVD included in the box set. This Beatles memory stick that you can easily hold in the palm of your hand includes all of the same music and all of the same visual elements as that stereo box set.

In actuality it contains all of the Beatles stereo remasters in that box set twice because it has both 320kbps mp3s and 44.1kHz/24bit FLAC files. I am positive you are familiar with mp3s (320kbps mp3s are of very high quality) but what about the 24bit FLAC files, what what is FLAC? Basically FLAC files are considered to be “lossless” and this means there is not a loss of sound quality like with mp3s or other “lossy” formats. And because they are 24bit instead of the 16bit files that are on compact discs, they are of superior quality in comparison with CDs.

This means that The Beatles USB flash drive contains the highest quality versions of The Beatles stereo remasters! That may change if there is a DVD or Blu-Ray release in the works but for now this is the audiophile holy grail as far as The Beatles stereo remasters.

What about the mono mixes? These are not contained on this USB flash drive. You still must buy The Beatles in Mono remastered box set to hear the mono mixes.

Harold Joshua Quesenberry recommends reading this Beatles Blog for lots of cool Beatles trivia and for the latest on The Beatles Remastered Box Sets.