The Beatles are on iTunes.
Apple made the announcement, as expected, at 10:00 a.m. ET, with an oversized image of George, Paul, John and Ringo (right) greeting visitors to its homepage.
The image is linked to a Beatles landing page that links to the legendary band's singles and all 13 studio albums -- filling a nagging void in the collection of the world's largest online retailer.
Of course, a few critical gaps in the rock-n-roll canon remain for Steve Jobs, like AC/DC, for instance.
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Included on the Beatles landing page are links to a new series of Apple ads featuring archival footage. But, perhaps most notable for Fab Four fanatics, Apple is also offering a free stream of the Beatles first-ever live U.S. concert ( February 11, 1964 at the Washington Coliseum, two days after their appearance on the "Ed Sullivan Show"). Apple is also including a free download of the concert for those who purchase the Beatles Box Set on iTunes.
As TheWrap noted on Monday, releasing the Beatles on iTunes could be a big injection of cash for EMI, whose owners -- Terra Firma -- just lost a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Citigroup from the equity firm's 2007 takeover of the label. That loss could see the label either taken over by the bank or bought piecemeal by the likes of Warner Music.
