It looks like The Beatles could be coming to Apple Music
According to a recent report, Apple Music could be about to get a big name addition to its online streaming catalog. Namely, none other than The Beatles may be set to reach the Cupertino-developed music service on Dec. 24, some six months after the service first launched for subscribers.
Apple Music, say “Hello”
Indeed, when Apple Music first launched, The Beatles, along with a number of further artists, were missing from the service’s streaming catalog. Of course, The Beatles had previously been longtime iTunes holdouts, though the artist did reach Apple’s iTunes catalog back in 2010 (with further exclusive content reaching the iTunes Store as recently as this month).
Now, however, a Billboard article published earlier this month (via 9to5mac) claims that The Beatles are indeed set to reach “a known streaming service” for a six-month exclusive period beginning Christmas Eve, Dec. 24. So far, no streaming service has admitted to being the lucky one; according to the article, a Spotify representative said that the company “would not comment on that,” and further companies, including Apple, refused to comment.
Given the relationship Apple has established between its iTunes Store and The Beatles, along with the growing range of exclusive content that’s available from the Fab Four on iTunes, it seems likely that Apple Music could be the service referenced in Billboard’s report.
The Beatles as an entity has been notoriously slow in adopting and adapting to new technology — it took the band six years to arrive on the iTunes Store, selling two million songs during its first week. The group took 25 years, since its breakup in 1970, to issue the comprehensive Anthology documentary. It didn’t get involved with video games until The Beatles: Rock Band was released in 2009. The Beatles music was released on CD in 1987, but the band didn’t remaster their work until 22 years later.
If The Beatles did launch on Apple Music, this would obviously be a huge boon for the service and could have the potential to draw in a large number of new subscribers. So far, Apple has aimed to promote its streaming service through increasing its music matching limit for iCloud Music Library, bringing Apple Music to the Sonos platform, and offering a $60 voucher (which buys you a six-month membership for Apple Music) along with all Beats purchases, for a limited time.
Offering The Beatles catalog exclusively on Apple Music, however, could be the service’s biggest draw yet.
