Beatles Not Coming To iTunes

Legendary British group The Beatles are not set to have their material released via iTunes, label EMI has claimed.

It is one of the great anomalies of our time. Almost every band on the planet has released their material through iTunes, from modern greats to complete unknowns. Yet The Beatles, the band who arguably kick-started this pop game, remain inaccessible to those with a modem.

The Beatles have never released their back catalogue as a digital download, though both Sir Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono have stated their intentions to begin talks with iTunes to make this happen.

Yesterday (September 9th) iTunes held a press conference which some speculated would be an announcement regarding The Beatles catalogue. This never materialised, which is perhaps unsurprising given the Rolling Stones theme of the conference - it was named 'It's Only Rock 'N' Roll'.

Record label EMI issued a statement flatly denying that The Beatles were set to release their back catalogue as a download.

EMI senior executive Ernesto Schmitt told the Financial Times: "Conversations between Apple and EMI are ongoing and we look forward to the day when we can make music available digitally - but it's not tomorrow."

There has been an ongoing row between Apple - the record company formed by The Beatles - and Apple, the computer firm who run iTunes. Numerous legal cases over the copyright attached to the name have created bad blood between the firms, with some speculating that this has slowed up the process of putting The Beatles online.

The Beatles re-issued their back catalogue yesterday (September 8th).