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Nearly 50 years after the Beatles took television by storm, the Fab Four's songs became available on iTunes on Tuesday, setting the stage for a possible new outbreak of Beatlemania - this one online.

After many a hard day's night of negotiations, Apple announced a deal on Tuesday to immediately begin selling the Beatles' music by the song or the album. Until now, the biggest-selling, most influential group in rock history has been glaringly absent from iTunes and other legal online music services.

Craig Marks, editor of Billboard magazine said: "The Beatles are one of those groups that parents and young people can kind of come together on, no pun intended. There are kids and there are baby boomers and people in between who, for whatever reason, never did download those Beatles songs because they weren't on iTunes, and now they're going to have the opportunity to do so."

Within hours of their availability Tuesday, eight Beatles recordings were at one point among the top 25 albums sold on iTunes, including a $149 boxed set at No 13. The eight also included Abbey Road, The White Album and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Apple would not release first-day sales figures or the number of Beatles albums or singles downloaded. The top albums list on iTunes is a fluid, real-time chart that changes several times throughout the day; the 25th album may sell only a few thousand copies in a week.

It is unclear how big the Beatles could become on iTunes. After all, many Beatles fans already have copied the group's CDs to their iPods.

Kerry Sullivan, 24, a senior at Saint Thomas Aquinas College in Sparkill, New York said: "It seems like too little, too late. Everyone who wants the Beatles catalog probably already has it. If, you know, they really wanted the Beatles, they know somewhere else to get it already."

去聽寫專區一展身手

（中國日報網英語點津 Helen 編輯）

About the broadcaster:

Lee Hannon is Chief Editor at China Daily with 15-years experience in print and broadcast journalism. Born in England, Lee has traveled extensively around the world as a journalist including four years as a senior editor in Los Angeles. He now lives in Beijing and is happy to move to China and join the China Daily team.