Digital Beatles?

It appears the Beatles back catalogue is being sold digitally online via the US-based retailer Bluebeat. This is big news because the Beatles have never before made their catalogue available online, not even through iTunes. It remains unclear as to whether or not EMI or Apple Corps have given Bluebeat permission. For now, individual songs are .25 a piece.

Source--NME.com

Update: Yes, it is illegal, and EMI will be suing. However, there is this little bit in the article I just linked:

The entire catalog of stereo Beatles albums will soon be legitimately available in digital, albeit physical, form. Apple Corp. and EMI announced the pre-order availability of 30,000 16GB Apple-shaped USB drives containing 14 albums in lossless 24-bit FLAC (better than CD quality) and 320 Kbps MP3 formats, 13 short documentary films about the albums, album art, “rare photos” and expanded liner notes, all accessible directly or through a Flash player that automatically loads on Macs and PCs.

It’s quite a statement — especially the 24-bit depth of the lossless files, which allows more gradations between volume levels than standard 16-bit (CD-quality) audio files. The only catch — they cost $280. EMI and Apple Corp. plan to release the drives on December 8.