There are few artists whose music is still unavailable from legitimate digital sources, but probably the biggest name notable by their absence are the Beatles. Well, that is still the case, but John Lennon tracks are, as of this week, available for proper download. A collection of Lennon's solo work called 'Working Class Hero' is being added to the Napster, Yahoo and Real's Rhapsody catalogues. The addition is presumably to coincide with the 25th anniversary of his death, and sales may well be helped by that previously reported movie about Lennon's murder, 'Chapter 27'.
The download platform notably excluded from the Lennon package is iTunes - presumably because Beatles company Apple Corp are still midway through legal action against the computer firm for using the 'Apple' name in the music space, something they promised not to do in an old trademark agreement. As I remember it, Apple were defending themselves by claiming that the launch of iTunes did not mean Apple were trading in the music business, because iTunes was just a bit of file distribution software that happened to distribute music files - "We at Apple Computers", they said, "are still in the business if IT". Of course if rumours that Apple are planning on launching their own record label prove to be true, then Apple Corps will have a much stronger case against the computer firm. Either way, if and when the Beatles do go digital, it's pretty unlikely you'll find them on iTunes (though, come to think of it, I wouldn't say anything was beyond the negotiating skills of Apple boss Steve Jobs).