We never knew how long the iTunes deal for exclusive downloading of The Beatles was supposed to last. But after five years it does seem to be over. Amazon Prime is now offering all of the main Beatles albums for $7.99 apiece. The Apple party is over. The Fab Four are free of the closed iTunes world. Yippee.

The original deal, cut at the end of 2010, was the result of many legal disputes the Beatles had with Apple computers over the Apple Records name. Steve Jobs had liked the name and logo, so he took it. In an earlier settlement Jobs agreed that his Apple would never have a music company. But then Jobs did it anyway.

What’s interesting is that there was no announcement of the Apple deal coming to an end. The albums just appeared on amazon.com with a “Buy” button for $7.99. This is a very deep discounted price for Beatles albums, too. The physical CDs are rarely offered for anything less than $12.99. With amazon dipping to $7.99, iTunes has done the same thing, too.

One theory: this is the equivalent of an inventory sale. Now that the Beatles have finally remixed their hits on the “1+1” album, it’s only a matter of time before they sell all new mixes on all the albums. The sound on “1+1”
is amazing. If you play it side by side with the 2009 box set, there’s a huge difference. So my guess is Christmas 2017 we get the Beatles Remixed. We’ll have to buy the catalog all over again. It’s brilliant. Evil genius.

As we approach Beatles’ Eve– or Christmas Eve, as it used to be called– here are just a few numbers to think about.

According to SoundScan, the Beatles’ $50 “1 + 1” box set has sold an impressive 10,700 copies since November 6th.

The “1” CD, released in 2000, brainchild of the last Neil Aspinall, has sold 12.6 million copies in the U.S. This year alone, “1” has sold 182,000 copies.

On the SoundScan year end catalog list– that’s all records released up until 2 years ago– the Beatles have at least 4 albums in the top 100.

This year alone, the vinyl version of “Sgt. Pepper” has sold 43,000 copies. The vinyl version, mind you. (So glad I kept the original.)

“Abbey Road” is number 4 on the list of LPs sold this year.

So get ready. However it plays out on Thursday, it’s going to be a wild night on Spotify.

The Beatles are coming to Spotify and Apple Music on Thursday– streaming for the first time anywhere.

Will they crash the systems when their songs all hit at the same time? My guess is Yes.

I have actually confirmed that the Fab Four finally gave in to the streaming services. This may account for Paul McCartney’s sudden flurry of public appearances on “Saturday Night Live” and at Nets and Rangers games over the weekend. That’s his way of doing P.R.

A new Beatles juggernaut is coming. Something tells me Christmas morning the Beatles will hold some new records for old records.

Keep refreshing…