By Stevie Smith Nov 20, 2007, 7:55 GMT
The long and drawn out process of bringing music’s greatest band to online retail outlets looks to be coming to a close. Rumours and speculation finally aside, Sir Paul McCartney has recently revealed that The Beatles’ music catalogue should officially hit the Internet during the course of 2008.
Sir Paul McCartney tells Billboard.com that The Beatles will be hitting online download services in 2008. Credit: EMI.
While an actual launch date has yet to be pinned down, Sir Paul has told U.S. music Web site Billboard.com that he’s fairly sure The Beatles will arrive online next year, and that only "fine-tuning" remains on the deal that will see download portals such as Apple’s popular iTunes Store finally adding The Fab Four’s content to their content selection.
"You’ve got to get these things right… You don’t want to do something that’s as cool as that and in three years time you think, ‘Oh God, why did we do that?’" explained Sir Paul regarding the repeated contractual speed bumps and planning delays that have plagued the much talked about online shift attributed to The Beatles. "There’s just maybe one little sticking point left," he added, "and I think it’s being cleared up as we speak, so it shouldn’t be too long."
Although solo albums belonging to all four members of The Beatles have already been released to online portals – with George Harrison rounding out the solo additions in October – the landmark content created by the band as an innovative four-piece is what most fans have been patiently waiting for.
The BBC News Website reports that music publisher EMI Group is thought to have been on the cusp of releasing The Beatles’ considerable back catalogue to online download retailers since early in 2007, when Beatles’ record label Apple ended its long-running trademark battle with California-based computer company Apple Inc.
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