WASHINGTON (AFP) — Beatles fans will be able to download the legendary group's music from the Internet in 2008, Paul McCartney told Billboard magazine in an interview.
"The whole thing is primed, ready to go -- there's just maybe one little sticking point left, and I think it's being cleared up as we speak, so it shouldn't be too long," McCartney said about the downloads.
"It's down to fine-tuning, but I'm pretty sure it'll be happening next year, 2008," he said in the interview dated November 14 that was published on Billboard's website.
While most popular music is available for purchase in digital form from the Internet, the massive catalogue of Liverpool's Fab Four -- including a slew of number-one hits in the 1960s -- has not been sold online legally.
McCartney, singer and bassist with The Beatles before becoming a solo star, told Billboard the problem has been "contractual" problems, but also suggested that timing was an issue too.
"You've got to get these things right ... You don't want to do something that's as cool as that and in three years time you think, 'Oh God, why did we do that?"
British music label EMI indicated earlier this year that it was working on the possibility of distributing The Beatles' music on Apple's iTunes website, but did not set a date for the release.
Sixteen songs by late Beatles idol John Lennon have been available on iTunes since August, under a deal between Apple and EMI that industry pundits said heralded the wider Beatles catalogue going online.
There was no prospect of that until Apple settled a trademark dispute with the band's publishing label, named Apple Corps, in February.
Then in April, EMI settled a separate royalties dispute with Apple Corps, removing another obstacle to legal downloads of legendary hits such as "Let it Be," "Hey Jude" and "Come Together."
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