One of the great rock and roll hold outs in the digital age has been The Beatles. Rumours of the Fab Four hitting the mp3 stores surface every year like clockwork. Surprisingly, all the speculation has been wrong.

Finally, Harmonix looks to be on track to be the first to get the Fab Four online, as long as you want to play along, that is. September 9th, 2009 is the scheduled release date of an unknown number of Beatles tracks (albums?) for the popular music game Rock Band. Along with the music, there will be new instruments based on the gear the band used.

It's not surprising to see Apple Corps Inc. dipping their toes in the datastream in this manner, for a couple of reasons. First is that by definition, tracks for music games are DRMed by default, which gives them a more controlled environment. Secondly, with the average tune costing somewhere around $2 there's a built in premium that I'm sure the Corps likes.

So if you're a Beatles fans (honestly, I've never been personally), check out their placeholder website, and sign up to notified when more details arrive, if the throngs of screaming teenage girls don't tip you off in advance.

And if anybody ever gets wind of Harmonix doing the same for Pop Will Eat Itself, The Dead Kennedys or Bauhaus, PLEASE let me know.

Labels: games