The Beatles on Spotify - Fab Four Finally Reaches Streaming Sites

For too long, The Beatles' songs have been absent from music streaming sites -- but that changed this Christmas, with the Fab Four (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr) finally available on Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play, Amazon Prime and all!

Billboard reports that after heavy fan demand, The Beatles' music has finally become available for streaming in the biggest music services online, and the attainable catalog can be accessed through the free versions of the sites, so there's no need for a Premium account.

Here, there and everywhere #thebeatlesstreaming https://t.co/Y4tJU9vCRc pic.twitter.com/9qh5poXXOZ

— The Beatles (@thebeatles) December 24, 2015

It's been a long battle to get the teachings of the biggest band in history available for streaming: since 2014, there had been rumors that the major streaming sites were fighting to get a six-month "exclusive" on their music, with Apple Records discussing the terms of the agreement ever since.

According to The Verge, however, a few albums from the Liverpool Four haven't become available right away, with a few hit records being left out, at least for the time being. These include The Beatles Anthology, Let It Be ... Naked, Live at the BBC, Love and The Beatles in Mono.

The past months have seen a few artists get into feuds with streaming services over their treatment of artists, with Taylor Swift leading the way after removing her entire music catalog from Spotify and Adele following by keeping her album, 25, off of the platform; so, for services like Apple Music and Google Play, the new possibility of streaming the music of one of the most sought-after bands in the world must feel like quite a breath of fresh air.

In any case, The Beatles joining streaming sites is a big step for this kind of service in a time when some artists deride the format while trying to stick to more traditional album and iTunes sales. With television/film services like Netflix and HBO Now, it seems like the future of music might just lie in streaming, whether artists want it or not.