Beatles Podcasts Stopped

The Norwegian podcasts featuring original Beatles tracks were stopped today, after only two albums (Please Please Me and With The Beatles) had been made available. The explanation given is that “NRK can not podcast programs with foreign music if the radio program was broadcast more than four weeks ago”. The original “Our daily Beatles” radio broadcasts went on air throughout 2007. So maybe they’ll get around this problem by re-broadcasting the original series?

When the Norwegian broadcasting corporation (NRK) started podcasting their 2007-series including original Beatles tracks yesterday, big international headlines followed. Even Rolling Stone Magazine mentioned it on their web site. Well it was fun while it lasted!

Update: NRK today issued this statement in norwegian (translated into english by me):

We have chosen to stop the podcasts of Our daily Beatles, due to advice from our own legal department. There are still some clauses that are not completely clear, and in order not to bring in something that may disturb a good negotiation climate, which again may interfere with future agreements, we have decided to withdraw the podcast of Our daily Beatles.

The next thing that happened was a web page with further explanations. Available in english here.