After a couple of weeks of rumors, The Beatles website confirmed that the entire band’s catalog will be available on Spotify, Apple music and all music streaming services out there starting tonight at midnight, local time. This is perfect timing for the holidays, and also a significant move as some artists are moving away from streaming services.
As a reminder, it took years before The Beatles released their albums on the iTunes Store. The albums became available in 2010 after years of speculations and intense negotiations between Apple, Inc. and Apple Corps, the company managing the band’s rights. It was all about maximizing album sales as the iTunes Store lets you buy individual songs.
The same was true for streaming services as it doesn’t pay as much as an iTunes Store purchase. But it looks like Apple Corps is thinking that it now makes sense to release The Beatles albums on streaming services.
13 remastered studio albums, and 4 special collection albums will be released at 12:01am local time. Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play, Amazon Music, Deezer, Tidal, Slacker, Groove and Rhapsody will all feature the classic albums. Spotify has also stated that both free and premium users will be able to stream the records.
Other popular artists have made some waves this year by opting out of streaming services. Taylor Swift was one of the most vocal artists against streaming services, saying that artists and labels don’t get enough revenue from these services. After opting out of streaming services for 1989, she chose to release her album on Apple Music after all.
More recently, Adele also rejected streaming for her latest album, 25. Other artists, such as Thom Yorke, have also refused to appear on streaming services for years.
