The Beatles, finally, are about to begin streaming their catalog online, just in time for Christmas.
And we mean literally just time. The announcement Wednesday morning reveals you’ll be able to stream The Beatles beginning 12:01 a.m. Christmas Eve, December 24. That’s local time, meaning streaming access will roll out across the planet, from East to West – an event you can track on TheBeatles.com.
Not all streaming services will get to play, however – Pandora is notably absent from the nine participating online services, which also includes Apple, Slacker and Spotify, Google and Amazon.
Billboard first reported earlier this week that The Beatles had struck the streaming deal.
The Beatles also took their time when it came to allowing their music to be sold digitally, waiting six years before they agreed to make their catalog available on iTunes. Two million songs by the group were sold during the first week they were released via the digital service.
With or without streaming services, The Beatles have had no problem continuing to market their music to fans, offering a variety of popular remasters, reissues and compilations over the years since their 1970 breakup. Most recently, the band released deluxe versions of their 2000 anthology, 1, that included DVDs and Blu-ray discs containing restored videos.
