The Beatles' Albums Go on Sale on iTunes
After many years of a legal feud between digital music store iTunes and The Beatles, the band's music is finally available for download and will continue to be sold through 2011.
The band’s 13 studio albums, box sets, and singles are available for download. Single tracks are available for the store's usual price of $1.29 and the band’s entire music collection costs $149. Single albums sell for $12.99 and double albums that feature mini documentaries sell for $19.99.
“For more than a decade, unauthorized copies of the entire Beatles catalog have been available and popular online, but your only legitimate option to buy the music was on CD,” said Eric Garland, CEO of BigChampagne, which tracks consumption of media online at legal and unauthorized websites.
According to Business Week, “Ownership of the Beatles' music catalog rests with various parties, including surviving members of the band Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, as well as Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison, the widows of John Lennon and George Harrison. The band’s record label EMI Group Ltd., Sony Corp. and the estate of Michael Jackson also control some rights.”
The band has kept its focus on selling physical media while CD sales have declined. Between 2000 and 2009, their collection of greatest hits, called 1, sold 11.5 million copies. They are also the top-selling band in history, selling one billion albums worldwide.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs said, “It has been a long and winding road to get here.”