The Beatles have begun to repay Apple’s reported $500m investment for its musical services by selling 2 million songs from its back catalogue in the former band’s opening week on iTunes.
According to Billboard.com, which cites Apple as its source, the initial sales figures for Beatles on iTunes since 16 November are at 450,000 albums and around 2 million individual songs worldwide.
The Fab Four’s ‘Abbey Road’, the album cover that has inspired countess comedy sketches and dubious T-shirts, was the best-selling album and ‘Here Comes the Sun’ performed best in individual song sales.
International sales
‘The Beatles 1962–1966 (The Red Album)‘ and ‘The Beatles 1967–1970 (The Blue Album)’ currently feature in the Austrian, Belgian, Canadian, Greek, Japanese, and Dutch iTunes top 10 world albums chart, while ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club’ is currently No 9 in the Swedish iTunes top 10 world albums charts.
US album sales totalled 119,000 copies, which included 13,000 of the special digital Beatles box sets.
As of February, the Black Eyed Peas’ ‘I Gotta Feeling’ was the most downloaded song on iTunes, and Lady Gaga’s ‘Poker Face’ and ‘Just Dance’ also featured in its top 10.
Whether or not the Beatles music can maintain this sales momentum remains to be seen. However, with the Fab Four’s music as popular as ever, who would question the Beatles’ ability to repay Apple’s investment given its sales track record and Apple’s marketing prowess, especially with the all-important Black Friday pandemonium on its way.
