US site selling Beatles' back catalogue despite EMI investigation

London, Nov 4: It has emerged that the back catalogue of British band Beatles is still being sold on BlueBeat for digital download, despite it being at the centre of a copyright row with EMI.

BlueBeat, an American website, continued selling MP3 files of every single Beatles track for 25 cents (15p), even though the group's record label, EMI, has launched an urgent investigation into the unauthorised sale.

The site has also continued to stream each of the group's albums, including the recently released remastered versions, in their entirety, free of charge.

EMI and Apple Corps, The Beatles' own company, have never released digital versions of the songs and fiercely protected the back catalogue against any attempts to do so.

An EMI spokesman revealed that the company was still looking into the situation and it will take "a little while" before anything changes. It is believed no legal proceedings have been launched yet.

With tracks going for 15p on BlueBeat.com and full albums, such as Abbey Road, for 4.25 dollars, consumers who have cashed in on the unusual situation have made major savings.

Each track is approximately five times cheaper than the current UK iTunes singles rate.

"BlueBeat is one of the first download stores in the West to sell unlicensed downloads," the Telegraph quoted Stuart Dredge, editor of music industry blog, Music Ally, as saying.

"Usually it's the pirate sites that behave like this and there have also been some similar issues with Russian and Lithuanian sites.

"But it is really strange for what had been a legal and commercial site to behave like this and get away with it for this long," he explained.

Dredge first became aware of the illegal sale and free streaming of the Beatles' tracks on October 29. He expects EMI and Apple Corps to sue if BlueBeat continues.

"I was expecting lawsuits to be hitting them by now - but that will probably come," he said.

"It all could just be a publicity stunt to get BlueBeat some attention," he added.

--ANI