If this isn’t the biggest sign that streaming music has won — despite pockets of resistance — I don’t know what is.
The Beatles have finally caved and now they will be streaming everywhere.
The revolution begins at 12:01 a.m. local time on Dec. 24 around the world — the entire catalog will be available on a wide number of streaming music services, the Associated Press reported.
The top companies will stream the Fab Four: Apple Music, Deezer, Google Play, Microsoft Groove, Napster/Rhapsody and Amazon Prime Music, as well as Slacker Radio, Spotify and Tidal.
Paying and nonpaying users of these services will be able to summon up “Hey Jude” and “The Tax Man.”
The Beatles have been the biggest legacy group to hold out from joining streaming music.
And yet, they also had potentially the most to gain, with new generations turning to streaming for discovery.
It was big news when in 2010 the music was available on Apple’s iTunes store, as the Wall Street Journal reminds. And YouTube has a lot of videos of The Beatles performing.
But now The Beatles’ “Lucy in the Stars with Diamonds” will be streamed. And people can compare it to Miley Cyrus’ cover version.
All this comes late — for The Beatles and for anyone under 30.
As more young people listen to music through streaming music services, the Beatles’ absence meant yet another generation just skipping over their great music.
A parent can stomp their feet and yell, “But, you should listen to them. They sold more than 250 million albums when albums were a thing to sell.”
I don’t know many kids who take their parents’ advice on music.
I told my 13-year-old, who says he wants to be a music producer, about the news. (Yes, I own The Beatles catalog, but as far as my boy is concerned if it’s not on Spotify, it doesn’t exist).
Is he excited? Nope. Does he care? Nope. And yet, I’ve considered his childhood deprived up to this point because he hasn’t dived head first into Beatlemania. His adolescence will be more tolerable with The Beatles. There may be hope with my 10-year-old girl, a romantic, but she tends to like female vocalists.
In a post titled “Who are The Beatles? And why are they on my Spotify?” Kevin Roose of Fusion offered an explainer for those who are new to the catalog:
Who are “The Beatles?”
The Beatles were a predecessor to One Direction.
Roose even gives newcomers a starting point:
So, say I want to explore The Beatles on Spotify. Where should I start?
Start with the all-time classics: “Hey Jude,” “Yesterday,” “Let It Be,” “Strawberry Fields Forever,” “Yellow Submarine,” “Eleanor Rigby,” etc. Then work your way into the deep cuts. But you can skip “Sun King.” Always skip “Sun King.”
Above: The Beatles. (KRT)
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