Beatles make solid showing in iTunes Store sales

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 24 November 2010 10:19

Your IT - Entertainment

If you were one of those who wondered why The Beatles arrival in the iTunes Store was considered a big deal, the sales figures may provide an explanation.

Apple claims to have sold more than 450,000 Beatles albums plus 2 million individual songs in the week following the Fab Four's debut at the iTunes Store.

These numbers apparently count individually each album sold in 'box sets', but are nevertheless not too shabby for material that's 40 or more years old.

But sales may be showing a short-lived spike. While Abbey Road was the sixth biggest selling album at the US iTunes Store last week, it has already slipped to number 17.

Other Beatles albums currently in the top 50 include The Beatles (the 'white album') at 26, Sgt Pepper's at 30, 1967-1970 (the 'blue album') at 34, 1962-1966 (the 'red album'), the $US149 Box Set at 49, and Rubber Soul at 50.

Revolver, Magical Mystery Tour, Let It Be, A Hard Day's Night, Please Please Me, and Help! also made the top 100. A respectable showing for old material.

But what about Australia? Please read on.