Beatles catalogue to hit streaming services worldwide on Dec. 24
The Beatles, long one of music's digital distribution holdouts, are giving fans an early holiday gift: their catalogue via the world's most popular streaming services.
9 most popular services to begin streaming the Beatles as of 12:01 a.m. on Christmas Eve
The Beatles, long one of music's digital distribution holdouts, are giving fans an early holiday gift: their catalogue via the world's most popular streaming services.
The beatles.com website revealed Wednesday morning that the iconic British group's music catalogue could be streamed as of Christmas Eve on Thursday, at 12:01 a.m. local time, around the globe.
"Happy Crimble, with love from us to you," the band said in a statement.
December 24 at 12:01am local time, The Beatles’ music is available for streaming worldwide: <a href="https://t.co/99cigizLza">https://t.co/99cigizLza</a> <a href="https://t.co/42vZSNGVHG">pic.twitter.com/42vZSNGVHG</a>
—@thebeatles The catalogue of involves the Beatles' 13 remastered studio albums and four compilation albums will stream via the services:
- Apple Music
- Deezer
- Google Play
- Microsoft Groove
- Amazon Prime
- Rhapsody
- Spotify
- Slacker
- Tidal
As more and more musicians made their music and back catalogues available on digital services, Apple Corps Ltd. — which manages the affairs of the legendary group — delayed allowing any online music service access to any Beatles music.
However, the group — which disbanded 45 years ago, but is represented today by surviving members Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, as well as Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison, widows of John Lennon and George Harrison, respectively — relented in 2010, announcing a deal with Apple Inc.'s iTunes that then CEO Steve Jobs called "a dream we've had since we launched iTunes."
As streaming music services grew to become the preferred method of music distribution today, the Beatles were once again holdouts.
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However, in recent days, reports emerged that the band might be considering a change — at a time when some major recording artists (most recently and prominently Adele) have shunned streaming to focus on album sales and others (like Taylor Swift) have disputed whether artists receive proper compensation from streaming services.