Beatles getting Apple royalties, non-exclusive sales?
updated 05:40 pm EST, Mon February 12, 2007
Beatles Non-Exclusive
The Beatles may have won more concessions from Apple, Inc. than has been publicly revealed, sources have told Roger Friedman of Fox News. Speaking with Neil Aspinall, head of The Beatles' label Apple Corps, Friedman learned that while all 13 Beatles LPs are being remastered with the expectation of an online release "soon," none of them are limited to iTunes or any other specific music store, contrary to earlier rumors of an exclusive deal struck with the iPod creator.
"[The launch] will be on all the services, not just one," Aspinall was careful to say.
Compounding the issue may be a previously secret term of the deal, Friedman alleges. A separate, anonymous source speaking with the journalist claims that the recent name agreement between the two firms involved a royalty agreement for every iTunes song or iPod bought, guaranteeing revenue for the music label regardless of perceived losses due to brand confusion. If true, the deal would place Apple, Inc. in a position similar to that of Microsoft, which was forced to pay royalties to Universal in order to carry the label's music in the Zune Marketplace.
