Beatles to debut on streaming music services

This step by the steaming services is expected to churn out better revenues for companies like Spotify and Apple Music. Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play and Amazon Prime Music are among the many set to stream their songs, the technology website said. In particular, the Beatles’ songbook could help hook older, less tech-savvy consumers on music streaming, which hasn’t yet become a mainstream practice in the U.S.

The Beatles – a streaming holdout – will see their songs across streaming music services from today, Re/code reported, citing sources.

The release comes after streaming services overtook digital downloads this year and it is believed tracks were held back to protect sales. And other classic rock resisters have come around recently: AC/DC started streaming its music this summer, following Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd in 2013.

The Beatles have a history of embracing technology later than most, with the band’s music not appearing on iTunes until 2010, some seven years after the service was first launched. That record is now available on Apple Music. For example, in December 2014, an artist received a paltry $0.0061296 per stream on Spotify, a number calculated by dividing the premium subscription money Spotify received by the number of artists and streams.

The Beatles have sold about 900,000 albums and 2 million digital songs this year, down from 1.2 million albums and 2.7 million songs last year, according to Nielsen Music.

And the Beatles-George, John, Paul and Ringo-could hardly believe it.

In fact, the only streaming services that aren’t scoring “Hey Jude” and other memorable hits are Pandora – which doesn’t do direct deals with music owners – and Rdio – which is shutting down. The Beatles are recognised as one of the world’s most commercially successful and most influential acts of all time.