On the fifth day of streaming, The Beatles got seriously boring

For a few years, the Beatles were frustratingly hard to listen to. The options were: buy the back catalogue (too expensive), download a pirate version (too much effort), or listen to them on YouTube (quite tedious and not possible on the tube).

As a result, they had a kind of unattainable quality, like a flirt who you often snog but always lose before the end of the night.

Now the Fab Four are on Spotify, Deezer, Apple Music (are they on Tidal? Does anyone have Tidal?), the magic is gone.

The White Album sounds way better with a 30-second clip about chlamydia after Helter Skelter

When you can binge, you can kill them for yourself so much quicker. I’ve been stealing Beatles listens on YouTube for years and I never got bored. It’s been a week since the Beatles went instant, and suddenly I’m sick of them.

Adele – who along with Taylor Swift doesn’t release her album for streaming – has been complaining about this: “It’s a bit disposable, streaming. I believe music should be event.”

I thought she was being a self-interested snob, but now I kind of get it. Streaming is still a million times better than fucking around with a CD or cassette, but you lose something.

The band who invented pop music are now less special than Taylor Swift.