Macca and Whacko’s £200m iTunes deal
According to British press reports, Sir Paul McCartney has sanctioned the release of the Beatles’ back catalogue on iTunes in a deal that is expected to bring in £200million (around $400million). With albums such as the White Album, Help! and Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the catalogue is by far the biggest prize released for on the Internet and will surely dominate the download charts for some years.
The deal must have been a nightmare to pull together with rights to the catalogue owned across the surviving Beatles Sir Paul and Ringo Starr, the families of John Lennon and George Harrison, and through deals done in the past, EMI, Sony and Michael Jackson. A dispute between Apple and the Beatles’ original record label EMI over royalty payments was settled last year, paving the way for a download deal.
Good news for Sir Paul who is enduring the final throws of an expensive and acrimonious divorce with Heather Mills. Good news for Heather Mills who will no doubt want to factor in future earnings somewhere in the settlement. Good news for MJ who is reportedly cash strapped. And finally good news for Apple who will no doubt see this as a further consolidation of the iTunes store as the webs premiere download facility.
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