A settlement between EMI and The Beatles has helped clear the way for the legal downloading of Beatles tunes.
Apple Corps, the publishing company owned by Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and the widows of John Lennon and George Harrison, claimed that the record label owed them 30 million pounds in missing royalties from sales between 1994 and 1999.Almost two years after legal proceedings begun in London's High Court, the parties have made a confidential settlement, with an EMI spokeswoman telling AFP, "I can confirm that we have reached a mutually acceptable settlement and that we are not going to say anything more than that."
It is believed that EMI are now working towards selling the music of The Beatles via legal downloads. If this eventuates, it will be a significant step forward in the evolution of digital music.
Digital music pioneer and former EMI executive Ted Cohen welcomed the news, whilst acknowledging that barriers remain within the digital sphere.
Speaking to Undercover, Cohen explained, "I think it's one more artist that we need to have in, but we still don't have Led Zeppelin, we still don't have AC/DC. But there's no reason for people to keep saying that legal downloads aren't ready because we don't have Led Zeppelin, The Beatles and AC/DC. That's always been semi-ludicrous because most people already have the Beatles collection on CD, on vinyl, on cassette or on 8-track."
Whilst no time frame has been put on when exactly Beatles albums will be able to be legally downloaded, it now seems to be a case of 'when' rather than 'if'.
Cohen went on to explain, "The future of the legal online world doesn't hinge on The Beatles being available. But I think it's a good thing, it removes one more barrier to providing a complete catalogue available on servers. It won't be all done just because the Beatles are available, but hopefully we'll be there pretty soon."
