Apple iTunes Debuts The Beatles – Now They’re Among The Top Sellers – (It’s wonderful)

Apple iTunes Debuts The Beatles – Now They’re Among The Top Sellers
By Jeffrey Paulsen on November 18, 2010, 6:40 am Posted in Finance News

In the battle to provide digital renditions of the Beatles catalog, Apple (NasdaqGS: AAPL) has won out, and it is paying dividends already. 40 years after the iconic band broke up, they are among the top sellers on Apple’s iTunes.

Google, Amazon Competed For Rights As Well

According to industry insiders, Google (NasdaqGS: GOOG ) and Amazon (NasdaqGS: AMZN ) wanted to offer the Beatles catalog as well, but Roger Faxon, CEO of EMI records went with Apple almost without hesitation. EMI owns the original master recordings, but they still had to make a deal with Apple Corps, a company fronted by Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and the surviving spouses of both John Lennon and George Harrison. Although EMI has the recordings, what they could do with those recordings had to be negotiated with Apple Corps, which is not related to Apple Corp. With negotiations between Faxon, Apple Corps CEO Jeff Jones and Apple’s Steve Jobs, the deal was made, and rest is literally history.

The Beatles have had differences in the past with Apple though. They accused Apple of infringing on their trademark business name in 1978. The spat was resolved when the Beatles licensed the Apple name to Jobs and Co. They have also had issues with Apple’s logo and their music synthesizer. All have been resolved.

Beatles Climb The Charts

Within a day being made available on ITunes, all 17 Beatles albums were in the ITunes top 50. Among those, three were in the top 10; Abbey Road, The White Album and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The box set containing all the albums is currently at No. 11. The most popular single song so far is “Here Comes The Sun.”

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