Rumour: Beatles to take iTunes into the cloud

The Beatles rumoured to be heading to iTunes this week
The Beatles rumoured to be heading to iTunes this week

Apple is set to make a series of major iTunes-related announcements today, with rumours circulating that The Beatles' back catalogue is finally set to arrive on the service.

Reuters cites unnamed sources claiming that the Fab Four's tunes will finally be arriving on iTunes this week.

EMI about to play ball?

There have been prolonged negotiations between Apple and EMI for years to try to get The Beatles on iTunes. It looks like there might have finally been a breakthrough announcement reached.

Apple and EMI Group Ltd have both declined to comment on the rumours.

Apple teased the iTunes announcement on its website earlier this week, with the announcement set for 3pm GMT later today.

Apple's message read: "Tomorrow is just another day. That you'll never forget."

Since launch back in 2003, Apple has sold over 10 billion tunes via its iTunes store.

The company is also expected to announce some cloud-based element to iTunes later today, following the acquisition of streaming service LaLa back in 2009.

"There's been a lot of speculation about iTunes.com, with the cloud. I'm not sure if that's ready. It's really more around partnerships, content partnerships, before they can announce anything," claims Kaufman Bros analyst Shaw Wu.

Stay tuned just after 3pm for the news.

Via Reuters

Adam Hartley