LONDON The Beatles launched their first official Web site this month, 30 years after the group split up, a spokeswoman for the band said. The site, thebeatles.com, did go live Nov. 13 and is the bands only official presence on the Internet among a flood of unofficial fan sites. The bands management had been resistant to the idea of setting up a Beatles site but hopes the venture will appeal to a younger audience.
OVER THE PAST few years, given the thousands of unofficial sites, there has been much speculation as to when the Beatles would create their own, the spokeswoman said. With a new CD coming out, it is the right time to put them on the Web and into the dot-com era.
The launch of the site will be tied to the release of the bands latest collection, simply called 1, which features all 27 of the Fab Fours No. 1 hits.
The bands management had been resistant to the idea of setting up a Beatles site but hopes the venture will appeal to a younger audience more familiar with using a computer than an old-fashioned record player. They thought it was the right way to show the Beatles to a new generation, the spokeswoman said.
The bands three surviving members, Sir Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, as well as John Lennons widow, Yoko Ono, have all contributed to the site.
Despite other celebrities falling victim to cybersquatters people who register the domain names of famous people in the hope of making a quick profit the Beatles had no trouble registering the name of their choice, the spokeswoman said.
The site will allow visitors to watch footage of the Beatles performances, contact one another and take virtual tours through the famous Abbey Road studios where the band made most of their music.
A team of Web designers has been working on the site for a year. While the content will initially concentrate on 1, new aspects will be added over time.
