Skip to main content

Fab Four Christmas: The Beatles catalog lands on streaming services Christmas Eve

sgt peppers dolby atmos the beatles wax  berlin
360b / Shutterstock.com
After years of holding out, the Beatles are finally going to start streaming your way.

Earlier this week we reported that unnamed sources had revealed that “most, if not all” streaming services would be getting access to The Beatles catalog beginning this week. Now it has been made official, and chances are fairly good that the streaming service of your choice will carry the band’s catalog.

Given the history of exclusivity of the band’s music in digital form, it’s surprising just how many services the Beatles catalog is coming to. Spotify and Apple Music are getting the catalog just as you’d expect, but so are Google Play, Tidal, and even Amazon Prime Music, according to a report from Re/code.

Even Pandora will be streaming the Fab Four’s music, though given the nature of the service, this is only through its Internet radio and not on demand. Rdio likely would have carried the catalog as well, if the service hadn’t sadly shut down earlier this week.

The deal seems relatively free of various restrictions, as well. Unlike some artists, most notably Taylor Swift, The Beatles’ music will be available to even those using Spotify’s free plan. Music from The Beatles isn’t currently available for digital purchase from Amazon, and it isn’t clear if this new deal will affect this arrangement.

It’s unknown exactly what time The Beatles’ music will go live on various streaming services, but it’s likely only a matter of hours before you can start streaming away.

At the time of this writing, only Spotify has said when exactly the band’s music will be available. “On December 24 at 12:01 a.m. in your time zone around the world, The Beatles’ catalog will be available on Spotify to all of our users,” reads a post on the Spotify blog. The post also notes the full inventory of music, including 13 studio albums and four collections.  Tidal will also have the catalog available starting December 24 at 12:01 p.m. local time. The full list is below.

  • 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
  • The Beatles
  • Yellow Submarine
  • Abbey Road
  • Let It Be
  • The Beatles 1962-1966
  • The Beatles 1967-1970
  • Past Masters (Volumes 1 & 2)

Editors' Recommendations

Kris Wouk
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Kris Wouk is a tech writer, gadget reviewer, blogger, and whatever it's called when someone makes videos for the web. In his…
Amazon’s music streaming service may be a lot cheaper than Spotify
Amazon music

Next month, five bucks may buy you all you can eat.

Amazon is negotiating with the music industry to offer a less expensive music subscription service, Recode reports -- but don't set aside that Lincoln just yet. The half-priced subscription option, which could launch in September, will be available only to Amazon Echo users. Amazon is already close to launching a standalone music streaming subscription service at $10-a-month, similar to Spotify or Apple Music.

Read more
At long last, Adele’s mega-hit album ’25’ will be available on streaming services
adele 25 streaming dublin concert

Adele has made no secret of the fact that she is not crazy about streaming, but she appears to have accepted it, to some extent. After withholding her mega-hit album 25 from streaming services for seven months, the Grammy-winning singer is ready to make it available on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Prime, and Tidal, Billboard reports.

Listeners won't have to wait much longer to start streaming 25. The album will be available starting at midnight on June 23, giving users a chance to say "Hello" to the British songstress' most recent album in its entirety. (Singles off 25 are already available on select streaming services.) By now, though, we suspect that most die-hard Adele fans are well-acquainted with 25 and, in fact, had a hand in her insane, record-breaking sales.

Read more
Streaming services and record labels have a plan to fix the music industry
warner music group streaming

The streams are aligning to help improve the cash flow for artists. YouTube, Netflix, SoundCloud, Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group, Spotify, and myriad other music industry players, trade groups, educators, and record labels join together today to form The Open Music Initiative (OMI). OMI's central mission is to promote innovations in the industry to help identify and compensate rights holders in this new music landscape.

On OMI's official website and the press release announcing the new coalition, the main aim for this new consortium is to provide transparency for rights holders -- a source of contention among artists in recent years. Last August, Talking Heads frontman David Bryne wrote a New York Times op-ed detailing his inability to gain transparency on his royalty payments from streaming services such as Apple Music. In the op-ed, Bryne wrote Apple Music would only disclose details of its royalty compensation deal during the service's three-month trial period last year to the copyright holders, which usually are the labels and not the artists.

Read more