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The Beatles’ catalogue has finally gone live on the iTunes store, after years of negotiation.
The official announcement came this afternoon, but the story had leaked via the Wall Street Journal yesterday.
Albums will retail for £10.99, although double albums such as the Red Album and White Album will sell for £17.99 each. The Beatles Box Set will be priced at £125. Consumers will also be able to buy individual tracks for 99p each.
Apple chief executive Steve Jobs enthused: "We love The Beatles and are honoured and thrilled to welcome them to iTunes."
Sir Paul McCartney offered: "It’s fantastic to see the songs we originally released on vinyl receive as much love in the digital world as they did the first time around."
Ringo Starr added: "I’m particularly glad to no longer be asked when the Beatles are coming to iTunes."
Apple is unsurprisingly planning a series of tv ads to promote the Beatles catalogue. You can check them out by clicking here.
The news comes following years of legal wrangling after the Beatles’ Apple Corp objected to Apple Inc using the same name.
An agreement was eventually reached when Apple Inc assured Apple Corp that it would not be involved in music.
The whole fight began again after Apple Inc bought the Emagic music production software developer in 2001 and then, a couple of years later, launched iTunes.
That second battle was eventually won by Apple Inc, when a High Court adjudged no conflict between the two companies activities.
The Beatles and Apple Corp have held out, however, against joining Apple’s music distribution platform until now – although with a very favourable pricing on The Beatles’ catalogue.
