The Beatles On iTunes?

Monday, March 10th 2008

Apple’s iTunes has been in a long drawn out battle with the Beatles’ Apple Corporation over their similar names. An agreement was reached recently and speculation began about which of the Beatles songs may be released to Apple’s iTunes Music Store.

Various media outlets have suggested that millions of dollars had been offered by iTunes for the use of the songs, anything from 600 - 800 million dollars, but these figures seem very low when split between the remaining Beatles, John Lennon’s and George Harrison’s estates, Sony, EMI and Michael. Sony/ATV has also denied that such a deal has taken place.

While EMI Group owns the recording rights to the Beatles catalogue, Sony and Michael own the rights to the vast majority of the catalogue’s publishing rights. Had a deal been cut, Sony/ATV would “absolutely be informed,” the Sony/ATV spokeswoman said.

Source: community.zdnet.co.uk, crave.cnet.com & MJWN