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.

Invasion of the Beatles: Rare Photos of the Band's 1964 U.S. Tour

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]

• 
  MUSIC 100 Greatest Debut Albums
• 
  MOVIES 'Star Trek' Is Crazy Good
• 
  TV 10 Shows to Watch This Summer
• 
  POLITICS No Price Big Banks Can't Fix

Song Stories

“Too Close”

Next | 1998

Next was formed in Minneapolis when the uncle of Terry "T-Low" and Raphael "Tweety" Brown, who was a gospel choir director, introduced the brothers to Robert Lavelle "R.L." Huggar. Sounds of Blackness singer Ann Nesby groomed the R&B group before handing them over to Naughty by Nature's KayGee, who wrote and produced "Too Close." The idea for the song was sparked "from a conversation we had with several girls at a nightclub," explained T-Low. "It's talking about the club scene, with guys getting out of hand and the female telling him to back up, asking, 'What are you doing?'" 

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter