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The Beatles-iTunes Rumors Heat Up Before Apple Event

It’s the eve of Apple’s “It’s Only Rock and Roll” event in San Francisco, and The Beatles-to-iTunes rumors have reached a fever pitch. Things really got saucy earlier when Sky News reported that the Beatles catalog would be available on iTunes. Their source? None other than Yoko Ono!

The article was quickly yanked down, but not before fueling speculation of the long-awaited debut of the Fab Four on iTunes.

The majority of pre-event reports have said not to expect any Beatles/iTunes news tomorrow, pointing to EMI’s Ernesto Schmitt interview with the Financial Times who flat out said there will be no big announcement. Of course he could be lying.

“Conversations between Apple and EMI are ongoing and we look forward to the day when we can make the music available digitally. But it’s not tomorrow,” Ernesto Schmitt, EMI’s global catalog president, told the FT’s Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson.

The Beatles-to-iTunes parlor game has been an interesting one to follow the last few years; most people just wondering why the heck the catalog isn’t available yet and what the heck is taking so damn long.

Interestingly, in the FT article, it says that Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison have always wanted to release the music on iTunes, but it’s EMI, which owns the master recordings, who are holding up the digital fun.

“If one [EMI] employee decides to take it home and wap it on to the internet, we would have the right to say, ‘Now you recompense us for that.’ And they’re scared of that,” Mr McCartney said.

McCartney told NME.com that he definitely wants The Beatles songs to be available as downloads.

“We were having problems with iTunes – well not iTunes, EMI was the problem – with downloading, which we’d like to do because that’s how a lot of people get their music,” explained McCartney.

McCartney noted that the band have managed to get around the iTunes issue via the new The Beatles: Rock Band videogame, which is released tomorrow (September 9).

With The Beatles: Rock Band videogame hitting the streets and the band releasing its entire catalog of albums in digitally re-mastered formats tomorrow, an Apple/Beatles announcement just might be overkill.

How much Beatles can one society take?!

Apple watchers are already expecting Steve Jobs and Co. to unveil a refresh to the iPod at the event, plus a product, code-named Cocktail by the record labels, that will feature interactive lyric sheets, photos and other special content. And even though it’s tempting to think that on such a momentous day in Beatles history that the cherry on top of this media maelstrom would be John, Paul, George and Ringo finally taking their place among the digital greats on iTunes, those Beatles Go Digital headlines might just have to wait.

It looks as though any dreams of downloading “Paperback Writer” tomorrow (legally!) shall remain just that – a dream.

But at least the major parties involved are inching closer to the day when The Beatles finally go digital.

Then we can all go back to our normal lives.

Do you hope they hurry up and get the Beatles on iTunes, or do you just not care either way because you already own all the albums?