It could be the best possible Christmas present for fans of the Beatles.
From Christmas Eve onwards, the Fab Four’s music will be available for the first time on digital streaming services.
An announcement on Wednesday on the band’s website said that from 12.01am local time on Thursday, the entire back catalogue would be available via nine services: Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Google Play, Tidal, Microsoft Groove, Amazon Prime, Rhapsody and Slacker. The catalogue comprises 13 remastered studio albums and four compilations.
The website got in with the puns, too: “The Beatles music - here, there and everywhere”, it declared, followed by “Happy Crimble, with love from us to you.”
It’s an interesting move for Apple Corps, the company that oversees the rights of The Beatles (ergo former members Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, and the families of deceased former members, George Harrison and John Lennon).
It took until 2010 before Apple Corps allowed Beatles albums to be released on the iTunes Store, the streaming service developed by Apple Inc 15 years ago.
Terse negotiations
The terse negotiations between the two companies hinged on maximising album sales, as against the iTunes Store model of selling individual songs.
While a similar argument could be directed at the streaming services - they do not generate as much money as iTunes Store purchases - clearly Apple Corps has had a change of mind.
Even more noteworthy, however, is that this year one of the world’s biggest-selling music acts - Adele - chose not to put her recently released album, 25, onto streaming services.
Another of this year’s biggest-selling music acts, Taylor Swift, initially opted out of streaming services for her album, 1989, but changed her mind. That record is now available on Apple Music.
Apple Corps has always doggedly held out for the best interests, commercial or otherwise, of the Beatles. The band’s physical albums were never sold at “sale” prices.
Knowing which way the wind blows, however, is something that is in the company’s DNA.
Fewer doubts
Streaming is currently the fastest-growing element of the music industry, and while some artists strongly question issues of control and royalty payments, others have fewer doubts about it.
With a legacy act such as the Beatles now on board the streaming train, it makes a convincing case for the medium being as close as possible to commercial acceptance for all ages - not just a younger demographic.
It also opens up the band’s back catalogue to anyone who has not yet heard everything the band released.
And then, of course, there’s the money. When the Beatles joined the iTunes Store five years ago, within seven days two million singles and up to 500,000 albums had been sold.
While the music will be available on the free versions of some streaming services including Spotify, music consumption via streaming and the related revenues are poised to overtake downloads.
Inevitably, the Beatles have song titles to reference this: Baby, You’re a Rich Man. And, lest we should forget, Taxman.
