Beatles perfect storm on 9 September 2009?

What is it with the Beatles and nines?

As our colleague Caroline McCarthy pointed out in March when the launch date (9 September 2009) for The Beatles: Rock Band was announced, the band's song "Revolution 9" ends with the words, "number nine, number nine, number nine".

On 9 September, the Beatles will release their entire catalogue, digitally remastered for the first time, on CD. The same day, The Beatles: Rock Band will be released, and there is speculation of an Apple music-related event the same day. Could it be an entertainment perfect storm? (Credit: Beatles)

So clearly, the date 09/09/09 has at least some symbolic significance for the band. And now, in addition to that date being the launch of the Rock Band title, it was announced yesterday that on that same day, the Beatles will release a CD box set of their entire catalogue, digitally remastered for the first time, re-confirming reports from months ago.

At the same time, many people have been talking about the high likelihood of an all-music-related Apple event around some unknown product announcement on 9 September. So, with all these facts — and some informed speculation — in hand, one has to think seriously that we may get a star-studded event with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr (who, you may remember, showed up at Microsoft's E3 press conference to promote The Beatles: Rock Band) and, of course, Steve Jobs, to announce the availability of that same digitally remastered catalogue on iTunes.

If that were to come to pass, it would seem to be an entertainment perfect storm. Of course, as is always the case with these things, we have to temper our enthusiasm because the most exciting speculation could well turn out not to be true. But if it does happen like this, well, it would easily be worth the price of admission.

EMI Music and Apple Corps — the Beatles' publishers — said that it took engineers at the famed Abbey Road Studios four full years "of utilising state of the art recording technology, alongside vintage studio equipment, to create these amazing remasters".

Having talked to the folks behind both The Beatles: Rock Band and the Cirque du Soleil's Beatle-themed "Love" about the remastering processes, we know that this is something that those involved with the band have been putting a lot of effort into over the last few years. And assuming that there will be a digital distribution element to this whole 09/09/09 thing, it's nice that after being very strict for years and years about how their music got out into the world, the band may finally have agreed to loosen the reins a little bit.

Of course, it's not altruism. There will no doubt be massive amounts of money flowing into the coffers of everyone financially involved with the band. And that's because even for people who already own the entire catalogue on old mono CDs or records, there may be a few extra dollars available for legitimate digital copies of songs like Hey Jude, Yesterday, and A day in the life.

But, of course, as of today, we don't know anything for certain about the Beatles and iTunes. What we do know is that The Beatles: Rock Band will have 45 songs, and that the digitally remastered CD collection will comprise all 12 Beatles studio albums — in stereo, no less — as well as "Magical Mystery Tour" and a combined "Past Masters Volume I and II", for a total of 14 titles on 16 CDs. The whole thing will be available, along with a DVD set of Beatles documentaries in one — presumably pricey — stereo boxed set.