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Want A Beatles Song? There's Now An App For That

Talk about an apple pie: Apple Computer and Apple Corps have finally agreed on a recipe for digital distribution of the Beatles music. Steve Jobs & Co. announced this morning that it has a deal with the band's record company, EMI, and Apple Corps, the band's company, to sell the Fab Four's music on iTunes.

The Beatles have been one of the last major holdouts against selling its music via digital downloads, Ben Sisario and Miguel Helft report in the Times. Four decades after breaking up, it has sold more than 177 million albums in the U.S. alone, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.

Apple executives have said that iTunes is roughly a "break-even" operation. "The music itself is a vehicle to allow them to sell more iPods and iPhones, which is where they make real money," says Creative Strategies analyst Tim Bajarin. But the agreement is a major coup for Jobs, he says, not only as a business deal but also because he is a "huge fan" of the group.

"Steve Jobs has finally become the dominant Apple," agrees John Perry Barlow, former lyricist for the Grateful Dead and co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

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