Years of waiting are over for Beatles fans wanting to listen to the Fab Four's music on streaming services such as Apple Music and Spotify.
Beatles songs will be available around the world at 12:01 a.m. Christmas Eve on nine streaming services including Apple, Spotify, Deezer and Google Play, the band's record company, Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group, said Wednesday in a statement. All major Beatles albums, such as "Help!," "Revolver" and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," are included.
The British band was the most significant holdout to resist streaming, which can generate less revenue for artists than album sales. The Beatles also refused to sell digital downloads for years, with the group's catalog appearing on Apple's iTunes only in 2010.
"The Beatles catalog has always been late to the party," Mark Mulligan, an analyst for London-based Midia Research, said by phone. "But the Beatles are a unique proposition. They can afford to set their own terms, their own timetable."
Bieber in charitable spirit this holiday
Justin Bieber is sharing some love with Britain's National Health Service. The Canadian singer says he does not want to be No. 1 on Britain's Christmas charts, and has urged his fans to support a charity single instead. With just two days to go until Christmas Day, Bieber is narrowly ahead of a National Health Service choir in the race for the top spot — a popular annual competition in Britain. "For 1 week it's ok not to be #1. Let's do the right thing & help them win. It's Christmas," the pop star tweeted Wednesday. The Lewisham & Greenwich NHS Choir's single "A Bridge Over You" was just several hundred sales behind Bieber's "Love Yourself." Proceeds from the choir's single will go to British charities.
Indictment: A New Jersey grand jury on Wednesday indicted the truck driver who crashed into a limo van carrying Tracy Morgan, killing one man and severely injuring the comedian. The grand jury charged Kevin Roper with first-degree aggravated manslaughter, second-degree vehicular homicide and third-degree aggravated assault in the 2014 crash.
Home for the Holidays: "Real Housewives of New Jersey" star Teresa Giudice was freed from prison Wednesday after serving nearly a year for bankruptcy fraud, and she returned home to spend Christmas with her family. Giudice's lawyer said she was released about 5 a.m. from the Danbury Federal Correctional Institution in Connecticut. She traveled home to Montville, N.J., in a black SUV and will be placed on home confinement until Feb. 5.
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