The iTunes announcement that popped up yesterday is now upon us: the Beatles back catalogue is now available to buy through Apple. iTunes is selling Beatles albums for £10.99, with the full box set available for £125.
With Steve Jobs a big fan of The Beatles, the big hurdle for getting the Beatles back catalogue online was a legal dispute over trademarking between Apple and The Beatles’ record label Apple Corps.
That The Beatles back catalogue would end up online eventually has been rumoured here and there for a long time, but this week The Wall Street Journal reported on talks that “represented a watershed in a fraught, decades-long relationship between two of the biggest icons in their respective fields”, which had gone on between The Beatles, EMI and Apple.
Each Beatles album comes as an iTunes LP, featuring lyrics photos and if you stump for the full box set at £125 there’s video documentaries of the making of each album too.
Jobs was enormously excited, and said: “We are now realizing a dream we’ve had since we launched iTunes ten years ago,” but Ringo hit the nail on the head for the rest of us, and said: “I am particularly glad to no longer be asked when the Beatles are coming to iTunes.”
What do you think of the news? Will you be downloading the Beatles back catalogue as fast as your fingers will let you?
