Apple welcomes Apple. Beatles finally available in iTunes

Apple welcomes Apple. Beatles finally available in iTunes

Beatles songs would be finally available for purchase in Apple, Inc.’s iTunes music store after a long-running dispute has ended through an agreement, according to anonymous sources privy to the deal. Apple would reportedly be announcing the agreement formally today although company representatives declined to comment.

Cupertino, California-based Apple, Inc. and the legendary band’s Apple Corps Ltd. have been filing lawsuits against each other for years. A dispute regarding the Apple name and logo was resolved in 2007. The legal fights have made the recordings of the Fab Four notably absent from the touted music portfolio of Apple’s iTunes.

The online store, launched in 2001, is the largest music store of any kind in the United States, even larger than Walmart and Amazon.com, the NPD Group says.

The Beatles’ work has largely remained in physical media amid the exodus of many artists toward online sales. But the band’s songs continue to be best-sellers, selling 30 million albums in the last decade alone, according to data from Nielsen SoundScan.

Their compilation album of their greatest hits called “1” was the number one stand-alone music album in the decade from 2000 to 2009, Nielsen SoundScan says. The iconic Fab Four have sold more than 1 billion albums worldwide, according to record company EMI.

The band was not the only music group to be excluded from iTunes. Rock band AC/DC has also opted to not make their music tracks available in the music store. Beatles songs remain favorites of peer-to-peer music sharing sites.

Posted by Kade Quinn on Tuesday November 16 2010, 9:29 AM EST. Ref: Bloomberg. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Entertainment, Featured News. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0