digital Beatles -- the mother of all licensing deals?

["Okerson, Ann" <ann.okerson@yale.edu>]

Just in from the New York Times, forwarded by your moderator:

November 15, 2010
Apple Strikes Deal to Sell Beatles Catalog Online
By BEN SISARIO and MIGUEL HELFT

For the next generation of Beatles' fans, the wait could soon be 
over.

Apple is expected on Tuesday to announce that it has finally 
struck a deal with the Beatles, the best-selling music group of 
all time, and the band's record company, EMI, to sell the band's 
music on iTunes, according to a person with knowledge of the 
private deal who requested anonymity because the agreement is 
still confidential. Depending on the terms of the deal, that 
could mean that, for the first time, customers will be able to 
buy "Please Please Me," "Hey Jude" or "A Day in the Life" online 
rather than on a CD and perhaps even as individual tracks. While 
the move to digital doesn't quite rival the band's first trip 
across the Atlantic to appear on "The Ed Sullivan Show" in 1964, 
it is an acknowledgment that online purchases must be central to 
the music industry's sales strategy.

Apple and EMI declined to comment, and representatives of the 
Beatles and Apple Corps, the band's company (not to be confused 
with the technology company), could not be reached.

<snip>