Are The Beatles Finally Coming to iTunes?

Many have speculated about what Apple's big announcement tomorrow morning will be, and the Wall Street Journal claims that it has the answer: The Beatles' catalog will finally be available on iTunes.

Citing "people familiar with the situation," the paper says that the deal was being negotiated as recently as last week between Apple, representatives for the Beatles and their record label, EMI. The source also said Apple could still change its plans at the last minute.

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Spokesmen for Apple, EMI and Paul McCartney declined to comment to the paper.

Apple and the group have had a long and often fraught relationship, and not just because the computer giant and the Beatles' custom label share a name (which was the cause of the first legal action between the two companies, in 1978).

Due to the complexities of the Beatles' finances, the group has been late to many developments: Its catalog was not released on CD until 1987, and boxed sets of unreleased material were not released until the mid-1990s. When the group's catalog was finally remastered and released last September, a press release simply said: "Discussions regarding the digital distribution of the catalogue will continue. There is no further information available at this time."

Apple iTunes, at Long Last, Gets Rights to Beatles [Wall Street Journal]

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Song Stories

“Is It True”

Brenda Lee | 1964

As the British Invasion reached its peak in 1964, Brenda Lee went from Nashville to London to record one of her hardest-rocking hits, her perky vocal backed by a stuttering, squalling guitar. That guitar was played by session musician Jimmy Page, yet to skyrocket to fame with first the Yardbirds and then Led Zeppelin. "She said to me, 'I've come here to make a record with the British sound,'" remembered producer Mickie Most. "She felt she wouldn't get the same sound in Nashville because they're only just catching up on the British beat group sound of about six months ago."

More Song Stories entries »

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