The Beatles
A Billboard rumor circulating today suggests that the Beatles catalog will begin to roll out on at least one, and most likely many, streaming services starting Christmas Eve.
This would be one of the last artists to finally succumb to the new technology of streaming. The Beatles catalog has been notoriously late to most new technologies. It took until 1987 for the albums to hit CD and they finally hit the iTunes store in 2010 when the majority of the albums surged onto the Billboard 200 Albums chart.
Now, it looks like they will finally become streamable on demand. The question is, where will they be available? Apple originally wanted an exclusive for their new streaming service but that deal seems to have fallen through. None of the other services would confirm or deny the impending additions to Billboard.
The Beatles continue to be a highlight in sales every year even though they have been apart for four-and-a-half decades. Until the vinyl resurgence was embraced by record companies with new product, Abbey Road was regularly the biggest selling vinyl album every year. In addition, two Beatles albums, the compilation 1 and, again, Abbey Road, are entrenched in Amazon’s top twenty albums by veteran artists for the week.
If the report comes true, the industry will have finally gotten the number 1 Albums artist of all time on their services and will be time to concentrate on number 2, Garth Brooks.