Update: It’s now official.
Building on a report from Billboard last week, Re/code now says that starting on Christmas Eve, The Beatles will be available on Apple Music. The report from last week said that the hit British boy band’s catalog would launch on one streaming service on December 24, but left out specifics.
Today’s report, citing industry sources, says that The Beatles’ music will be available on nearly every streaming service beginning December 24th. That includes Apple Music, Spotify, Google Play, Tidal, and Amazon Prime Music.
The Beatles will be available on all tiers of popular streaming services, including the free tier of Spotify. This is different from, say, an artist like Taylor Swift, who is only available on paid services. Of course, Taylor Swift was also an Apple Music holdout at first, saying she wouldn’t be on the service unless Apple agreed to pay artists royalties during the free trial period. Apple and Swift’s relationship has now blossomed to an entirely new level.
The Beatles catalog was first available digitally in 2010 exclusively through iTunes for a while, which was a major deal for Apple at the time with 2 million tracks sold within days. With the addition of the catalog to Apple Music, The Beatles should again expect a surge in listens. Much like The Beatles, AC/DC strongly resisted streaming services, but gave in and released their content on Apple Music earlier this year.
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Apple should had ponied up the money and made the Beatles an Apple Music steaming exclusive.
Why? Be happy that was more people have access to the same music. I really hatte this idiotic elitist attitude.
It’s definitely an Eddy Cue fail that Apple couldn’t get an exclusive, at least for a few months. And with the Beatles coming to Spotify’s free tier it totally undercuts Apple’s argument that there shouldn’t be “free”, ad-supported tiers.
It’s called “business”. Look it up.
Apple (and the other companies) exist to make money. An exclusive would have gone a long towards bringing in new customers.
“Hit British boyband” – seriously? I’m really not sure I’d describe the Beatles as a boyband!
The Beatles were the first boy band; Clean cut, acoustic driven pop songs.
Who wrote their songs and played their instruments. The Beatles were not a boy band. And very few of their early songs were acoustic.
Absolutely Agree!
Show me one “Boy Band” in the last 30 years with the musical influence and staying power of The Beatles – well, that challenge will go unmet!
Suffice it to say – IMO – Chance, you are not showing the respect that The Beatles deserve. Truth be told – I was never a very big Beatles fan, but they certainly did shift the musical discussion when they hit the shore of the USA 50 + years ago. . . . overlooking that disaster of “Let It Be.”
Being a boy band has zero to do with influence or staying power….most musical historians consider The Beatles to be the first “boy band” due to their large cult like following from mostly teenaged girls.
Pretty sure the Beatles have no more or less “staying power” than New Kids on the Block or N*SYNC. Justin Timberlake is still popular. Paul McCartney just did a song with Rihanna and Kanye and nobody knew who he was lol.
@mrobertson21
Ha! Funny.
Clearly you don’t understand that pretty much every popular band /musician/songwriter that came after the Beatles was influenced either directly or indirectly by the Beatles.
How many musicians decided to become musicians after first seeing the Beatles?
Songwriting and structure was revolutionized by Lennon and McCartney.
Recording techniques and producing/engineering was revolutionized by the Beatnes and Phil Spector.
To say that the Beatles have no more staying power than NKOTB/Justin Timberlake is terribly uninformed. And I have the highest regard for Justin Timberlane (he’s incredibly talented and can do everything from sing/dance to acting/comedy).
I can’t tell if you’re trolling or just too young to know any better.
Neither @techshizzle.com. I’m 29 and I’m a professional musician. I’m also a big fan of the Beatles and I have great respect for what they’ve done.
the fact is though, unfortunately younger people aren’t as familiar with their music. We can sit here and debate taste all day, but you can’t argue with the impact those groups had.
Well let’s see: they’re British — check. Are they boys? Yes. Were they in a band? Yup.
The Beatles are now available on Rhapsody, so I expect all services will have them.
Never been a fan of the Beatles and I completely stopped listening to them when I switch to music subscription a couple years back and I don’t miss them…
Adele/Miley/Lady/Rihanna/Wotsit Swift/(insert your favourite present-day pop star here)/etc owe a massive debt to The Beatles.
ZzzzzZzzzzzz……
Is it seriously going to be news every time the Beatles catalog is released to a different delivery device?
Headline from 2023: The Beatles are available on BrainSync so you can beam it right into your prefrontal cortex all day long!
Just 7 years from BrainSync?
In that case The Beatles could prove useful, as they could be used to block unwanted prefrontal cortex manipulation from so-called governmental sources.
Boring, very boring…..
If in the outset The Beatles had been cast as roguish yobs and The Rolling Stones as friendly, smiley boys-next-door, would history have panned out the same?
The facts are that The Beatles were the first massive pop group. They opened the doors for the flood of British musicians aiming to make a killing on the US market, same too for the US musicians who followed in their footsteps. This includes all the big 70s groups including Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, etc. You can ask any musician currently treading the boards or anyone faintly familiar with the music industry and you will find that it is absolutely impossible for any other act to attain the heights that The Beatles attained.
It seems it’s already up, a day before December 24. Asked Siri on my Apple TV to play Beatles songs and it booted up fresh. I know the Beatles content has been around for a long time, but having them readily available for streaming on any of my Apple devices now is fantastic.
Sigh, aren’t we getting tired of Beatles yet? Enough already! We know Steve Jobs loved them, so we know thats why Apple freaks out over them, but seriously, theres plenty thousands of other musical talent just as worthy for promotions.