The Beatles sell 5 million songs, 1 million albums on Apple's iTunes
Apple revealed to The Loop on Friday that the current best-selling album is "Abbey Road," priced at $12.99, while the most popular song is "Here Comes the Sun" from the same album, which costs $1.29 individually.
The numbers show that the pace of sales has slowed since the first week of availability, when 450,000 albums were sold, along with 2 million songs. Then again, the best-selling album and song were "Abbey Road" and "Here Comes the Sun," respectively.
The Beatles catalog came to iTunes in mid-November, after a wait of more than 7 years since when the iTunes Store opened and began selling music. Apple and the Beatles' parent company, Apple Corps, were involved in a trademark dispute for years, before it was finally settled in 2007.
Earlier this month, alleged details of the contract between The Beatles and Apple were revealed, suggesting that the band is being directly paid royalties from song sales. The information suggests the royalty split could be even more lucrative for The Beatles than a standard iTunes artist contract.
40 Comments
I seem to remember the claim being made here that everyone had them all already (that wanted them) and they'd never sell anything yada yada yada ... just goes to show SJ knows what he's doing yet again!
It's not exactly a grand slam, but those numbers aren't terrible either.
I seem to remember the claim being made here that everyone had them all already (that wanted them) and they'd never sell anything yada yada yada ... just goes to show SJ knows what he's doing yet again!
Yup. Many made the claim. None will admit it.
Considering how many people probably already had the songs, I think it is pretty successful. Some people here didn't seem to think anybody would buy the Beatles on iTunes.
It's not exactly a grand slam, but those numbers aren't terrible either.
I seem to remember the claim being made here that everyone had them all already (that wanted them) and they'd never sell anything yada yada yada ... just goes to show SJ knows what he's doing yet again!
People also predicted the iTunes Music Store would fail because you can higher bitrate music without DRM at cheaper prices on a CD. Maybe it?s too early to tell, but I think people like the convenience of the iTunes Store.