Christmas just got a whole lot better for streaming fans, with the “white whale” of artists finally looking like their catalogue will be added to services. That’s right, none other than The Beatles are apparently in talks with streaming services so their music can finally be listened to… you know, if you didn’t already have all their music already.
Having notoriously kept their music off any and all streaming services, it appears that the tables have turned for the Fab Four. As Billboard now reports, it looks like Christmas Eve, 2015 will be the date fans can stream their music- although this hasn’t been totally confirmed yet.
What also hasn’t been confirmed is exactly which service will receive the great honour and privilege, or if there will be multiple lucky services. Whilst Apple Records (The Beatles’ label) were apparently in talks of an “exclusive” deal last year, said deal has “fizzled out” and talks were restarted early this year. Spotify and Rhapsody both refused to give a comment to Billboard on whether or not they were the services in question, whilst Apple Music, Tidal, Deezer and Slacker had not responded at the time their article was published.
The Beatles have only had their music in iTunes since 2010, six years after that service was launched, and the band sold two million songs during the first week of that happening. Who knows, maybe the Christmas spirit has finally swayed them, and they will finally let us do what we have all so desperately wanted to do since streaming became a thing- stream Hey Jude on Christmas Day? No? Just my family? Okay then!
See our retrospective reviews on The Beatles’ White Album and Revolver here.