The Smiley Smile Message Board

I recently noticed that several of The Beach Boys compilations  are gone from the US iTunes Store, Apple Music, and Spotify.
The "Made In California" box set was removed just a few days ago. "The Big Beat 1963" has been gone for a while now.
This worries me, because both of these came out in 2013. Does this mean that the "Keep An Eye On Summer" set will be gone next? Or is this just a temporary issue?

May just be temporary or a server problem. Made In California is still available for me on YouTube Music. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the Big Beat in any streaming platform, tbh.

Big Beat was originally an iTunes only release. Now its not even available for purchase.
Made In California is only available in a few markets.

I remember buying the Big Beat from iTunes when it came out - glad I got it when I did. It's a shame that it's not available on any streaming platform (or even available to buy) - Brian's 'Thank Him" is one of my favorite early Brian tunes.

Also, just realized that Brians Getting In Over My Head is gone too

That's a shame. I don't understand why it's not available? It actually has some great songs on it (especially Desert Drive and The Waltz (perhaps thats the wrong name, it's the one he wrote with VDPs that concluded the album)).

Total bummer.  All the more reason to purchase albums, either physical, or purchase downloads, when they are available for sale. Streaming is very impermanent, and it's easy for us to forget that, including myself.

It's also really important to support the band and future archive releases by purchasing them in whatever format they are released in, which includes MP3s. I think people should be buying them even if that isn't their preferred method of purchasing music, because all in all it helps support future releases from even getting a greenlight in the first place.

Some of the Copyright box sets are gone (glad I downloaded them)

But MIC is still on my Apple Music

Sorry, some of us don’t have that much money to drop on archival releases
If its already in your library, it will still show up. For example, i have some songs from MIC in a playlist, and they play fine. But, if you try to see the entire album outside of your library, its not available

I don't use streaming services with any regularity, but it appears MIC is still on  YouTube Music:

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kvcjl88TSW08b1p-DwNqqoyge0epVMJmA

Weirdly, it appears "Made in California" is still on streaming services, but can't be purchased digitally. That's kind of bizarre. It looks like maybe individual tracks are purchasable on Amazon digitally, but not the entire package.

I don't think "Big Beat" is on YouTube (but then again, it's strictly not even all "Beach Boys" tracks anyway), but it seems like all the other "Copyright Extension" stuff is, both live and studio from 1964/2014 through to 1969/2019.

The reason random albums, like solo Brian stuff, drops off the services is surely due to licenses lapsing. Assuming Brian (or whatever artist in question) isn't trying to "pull" an album from circulation, it certainly seems needless to keep the albums off streaming services. Streaming services don't offer much revenue, but it's better than zero and there is something to be said for propping up an artist's career by keeping their material available.

His point still stands and is correct.  Any real hardcore fan of the Beach Boys will support these releases.

I do. I pay $9.99 a month for streaming rights on Apple Music

Not being able to afford a set doesn't make someone any less of a fan. In 2017 and 2018 one would've had to spend nearly $200 on iTunes to get the sets released in those years. And while $200 may not seem like a lot to some, you never know the financial struggles some are going through. During a time when I could freely buy sets, books, movies, etc, I knew many fans who weren't able to afford some sets, didn't make them any less of a fan to me. And currently I'm in a position where other financial obligations take precedent over buying music on iTunes. So I'm streaming this music for the time being - and yes it's still supporting those releases in a very small way.

While I'm glad these sets exist on streaming services at the moment, it would likely benefit Capitol to release a sampler set on Apple Music/Spotify/YouTube Music, and then charge for the full-blown set on iTunes. Bob Dylan's sets do this, I don't see why it wouldn't also work for The Beach Boys.

I’m sure they could do that, but at the moment, Apple Music and iTunes use the exact same files. So if you buy on iTunes, its the same files as streaming on Apple Music.
Also, a few years ago when the streaming services were first getting started, there was a lot of controversy because certain artists were doing things exclusive to certain Services. so some albums would only be available on Spotify, and others would be exclusives  to Apple Music for the first 3 months. And after a while, all the labels had to stop because they were losing money on exclusives. So that could be a problem, because iTunes is owned by Apple, and Spotify does not offer a way to purchase music at the moment.

https://uk.7digital.com/artist/various-artists/release/the-big-beat-1963-3175119?h=08&f=20%2C19%2C12%2C16%2C17%2C9

If you're not in the UK, you can use a VPN to spoof your location.

They have been removed in Australia too. Bummer.

FYI i noticed today that "Made in California" is back on Apple Music! was happy to see that...wonder why it dissapeared for ~a month or whatever it was..

It has been back for a few weeks now