The Beatles' legal podcasts

10 months ago 07th Jan 13:15

The Beatles' songs have become available to download legally for the first time.

All 212 recorded tracks by the legendary band have been made available on Norwegian podcasts, which were originally broadcast in 2001, under a new deal between Norwegian broadcasting company NRK and music rights holder TONO.

The series, which features spoken information in Norwegian about the music, as well as the tracks, has been allowed to be made available because the podcasts contain less than 70 per cent music - a requirement outlined under the deal.

So far, 14 of the podcasts are available to download with the remaining works becoming accessible throughout this month.

The Beatles are one of very few artists whose music is unavailable to download through sites such as iTunes.

In November, former band member Sir Paul McCartney revealed talks between record label EMI and iTunes owners Apple had "stalled", but he was hopeful a deal could be reached in future.