Beatles love me digital, as Apple sues Apple

Stan Beer
Friday, 14 April 2006 17:53

Your IT - Home IT

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It's a wireless world, but not for Apple

As the two surviving members of the Beatles watch while the record company they founded in the 1960s, Apple Corp, sues Apple Computer for alleged trademark infringements, they have finally consented to allow their music to be downloaded from the net.

The Beatles are among the last holdouts of the famous music rock legends (Led Zeppelin is another) that have resisted opening their music up to the digital download wave. Currently, to get a Beatles track onto an MP3 player legally, a listener has to copy a CD to hard disc and then download it.

It is not known whether the friction between Apple Corp and iTunes founder Apple Computer is a factor behind the resistance of the Fab Four to the digital age of music. Nevertheless, according to reports, tens of millions of Beatles tracks have been downloaded digitally and Beatles songs are among the most popular to be downloaded from the web.