Beatles on iTunes: Will They Sell?

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The Beatles have hit iTunes.

The “Beatles Box Set” is priced at $149 and features “all of the band’s studio albums as well as the Past Masters collection.” Single albums are also available for download at between $13 and $20 each.

I’d be very interested to see how well these albums sell. I can’t imagine too many people have been holding out for the Beatles to become available on iTunes instead of buying the CDs and converting them to MP3 files or pirating the albums illegally.

Beatles music may have taken until 2010 to hit iTunes, but it’s been available digitally for what seems like forever. If ever there was an example of how slow the music industry’s been to embrace digital downloads, this is it. You can’t fault Apple for promoting the tracks, but nobody involved in the negotiations should be patting themselves on the back over this whole deal.

As for a web-based version of iTunes and/or unlimited music subscriptions, it didn’t happen. Today is a Beatles-only affair.

More on Techland:

At Long Last: The Beatles Catalog Will Be Available On iTunes

Will Apple Announce Web Based iTunes Tomorrow?