The BeatlesIn a highly digital age such as the one we are currently in, it’s hard to believe that not all music is legally sold online. However, with the Beatles, that’s just the case.

While you can play their songs on Rock Band and listen to their music on remastered CDs, you still cannot buy the Beatles’ music on iTunes and other digital stores. That is, not yet.

According to rollingstone.com, Apple Corps. and EMI Music will release a limited-edition USB drive featuring the entire Beatles in Stereo remastered discography on Dec. 7 in the UK and Dec. 8 in North America. While Apple Corps. had up until recently kept the view of not selling John, Paul, George and Ringo’s music digitally, 320 Kbps MP3s will house all 14 Beatles albums and 13 “mini-documentaries,” and will be available for public purchase. The 16GB USB drive will be shaped like the famous Apple logo, with “The Beatles” written on it. Only 30,000 of these Beatles USBs will be produced.

The USB can be pre-ordered on the Beatles’ website. The price for this limited edition USB $279.99 (US), states the site, and includes the Beatles’ albums, Please Please Me, With The Beatles, A Hard Day’s Night, Beatles For Sale, Help!, Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Magical Mystery Tour, Yellow Submarine, The White Album, Abbey Road, Let It Be, and Past Masters.

EMI Music is also currently going after a digital music site called BlueBeat.com for offering a digital download of the Beatles catalog without permission. A copyright-infringement lawsuit was filed yesterday by EMI, which has the digital rights to the Beatles’ music through an agreement with Apple Corps.

Not only is the site selling the Beatles discography without permission, BlueBeat is doing so at below market prices. Each track on BlueBeat costs only 25 cents, so while iTunes would charge $9.99 (US) for an 11-track album like Magical Mystery Tour, BlueBeat only charges $2.75. The entire catalog is being sold for $53.25. The site has reportedly been streaming the catalog since Sept. 16, which was just one week after the remastered CDs were released.






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