Eloise Smith, 23, posted a reaction video on TikTok immediately after listening to “Now and Then,” the Beatles song released Thursday.
“I can’t believe it’s 2023 and I’m having the joy of hearing a new Beatles song for the first time ever,” she wrote in the video’s caption.
In an interview, Ms. Smith, a civil servant living in Manchester, England, said she was a third-generation fan: Her grandmother introduced her father to the Beatles, and her father introduced them to her.
“I was 1 year old when George Harrison died,” she said.
Ms Smith, who has the band’s Abbey Road album cover tattooed on her forearm, said she was “thrilled” when she heard about Now and Then weeks ago. The ability to instantly respond and connect with other fans of the band through social media made the experience of hearing a new Beatles song richer, she added.
“Instead of just staying in the friend circle kind of way, you can talk about it with people all over the world,” she said.
The Beatles came late to digital media. It wasn’t until 2010, seven years after opening, that the group began selling downloads of their songs on Apple’s iTunes Store. As streaming became the primary medium for music fans, The Beatles once again held out, waiting until 2015 before making the band’s works available on Spotify, Apple Music and other platforms.
The decision to go digital allowed new generations of listeners to more easily discover a group that had won the adoration of hordes of screaming fans in the 1960s. Meanwhile, Generation Z listeners regularly post Beatles-related videos on social media platforms.
“This song is my Roman Empire,” one listener wrote in a TikTok post, referencing a meme that claimed men think about the Roman Empire at least once a day. In the comments, several people responded that the video brought them to tears. “Sobs,” they wrote. Others said they were excited to hear the song with their grandparents.
Skylar Moody, 24, said she spent most of Thursday avoiding “Now and Then” spoilers. As a superfan whose social media presence is almost entirely devoted to the Beatles, she wanted to record her reaction to her first listen, which meant waiting until she was done working. She kept her phone on silent all day so she wouldn’t accidentally hear a snippet of “Now and Then” while scrolling the internet.
Ms. Moody, who lives in New Jersey and goes by the fitting name @lucyinthesky.lar on TikTok, said she became a Beatles fan after watching “A Hard Day’s Night,” the group’s film from the band, during a music history class in high school Year 1964, had seen . She described the Beatles’ online fan base as “very diverse and also uniform.”
“No matter what age or demographic you are,” she said, “we can all agree that we love the Beatles.”
She continued: “This is where we find our people now. It’s so easy to find a fan community on social media of people you can talk to and who understand you.”
Late Thursday afternoon, she filmed a reaction video of herself listening to “Now and Then” in her car. “I listen to the Beatles! In 2023!” she shouted, capturing her face in a two-minute clip in which she describes what she hears.
The Beatles’ company, Apple Corps, has announced “Now and Then” as the group’s “final song.” It is the third since John Lennon’s death in 1980, following “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love” in the mid-1990s. All three are based on home demo recordings by Mr. Lennon.
“My heart feels so heavy right now, but in a good way,” Ms. Moody said in another TikTok video, adding, “We are experiencing their last song together and this will go down in history.” I am so happy that we can share all of this together and that we can share our thoughts online in this way with people who understand.”
Ms Smith, the official in England, said she would try not to wear out “every now and then” in the coming days. “I listen to it every now and then to enjoy it,” she said, “because it’s such a big deal.”