Update: It’s now official.
Building on a report from Billboard last week, Re/code now says that starting on Christmas Eve, The Beatles will be available on Apple Music. The report from last week said that the hit British boy band’s catalog would launch on one streaming service on December 24, but left out specifics.
The Beatles will be available on all tiers of popular streaming services, including the free tier of Spotify. This is different from, say, an artist like Taylor Swift, who is only available on paid services. Of course, Taylor Swift was also an Apple Music holdout at first, saying she wouldn’t be on the service unless Apple agreed to pay artists royalties during the free trial period. Apple and Swift’s relationship has now blossomed to an entirely new level.
The Beatles catalog was first available digitally in 2010 exclusively through iTunes for a while, which was a major deal for Apple at the time with 2 million tracks sold within days. With the addition of the catalog to Apple Music, The Beatles should again expect a surge in listens. Much like The Beatles, AC/DC strongly resisted streaming services, but gave in and released their content on Apple Music earlier this year.
