The Beatles are to release their back catalogue on streaming sites including Spotify, Apple Music and Tidal for the first time from today, the band’s Web site said yesterday.
The announcement comes after years of the Fab Four’s songs not being available on the sites and five years after they were first made available for downloading on Apple iTunes.
“On December 24 at 12:01am local time — here, there and everywhere — The Beatles’ music is available for streaming worldwide,” an announcement on the band’s Web site said.
‘HAPPY CRIMBLE’
“Happy Crimble [Christmas], with love from us to you,” the Web site added.
The Beatles were one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed groups of all time.
The announcement means that fans are to be able to listen to the band’s songs on nine services — Spotify, Apple Music, Slacker, Tidal, Groove, Rhapsody, Deezer, Google Play and Amazon Prime.
Although some musicians have expressed concern about the amount of money their music can make on streaming services, most have decided they have little choice but to use them.
TAYLOR SWIFT
Taylor Swift removed her whole back-catalogue from Spotify last year, but did agree to stream on Apple Music when it launched in June.
Separately, YouTube on Tuesday added interactive, 360-degree animation video to its lineup, with help from the makers of Wallace and Gromit.
Dubbed “Spotlight Stories,” the new feature are to be viewable on the YouTube app of an array of Android-powered smartphones.
Showcasing the technology was a Santa-themed short film from Academy Award-winning studio Aardman Animations that was entitled Special Delivery.
The animated short centers on a building custodian trying to find a “mysterious stranger” who remains just out of sight, but leaves behind a trail of gifts.
Designed by Google as a new form of storytelling, the immersive films allow users to drill down into sub-stories within their plot by moving their phone toward what they want to see.
“The sensors on your phone allow the story to be interactive, so when you move your phone to various scenes, you unlock mini-stories within the story,” technical project lead Rachid El Guerrab said in a blog post.
Special Delivery features 10 subplots and three potential endings.
EXPANSION PLANS
Google Spotlight Stories will be expanded next year to more Android devices as well as a YouTube application for mobile devices powered by Apple software, El Guerrab said.
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