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John Lennon's solo catalog is now available for download from Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) iTunes Store, a sign -- to some hopeful Fab Four fans -- that Apple is slowly fixing a hole: The fact that Beatles music is still unavailable.
The inclusion of Lennon's non-Beatles music on iTunes, something Apple CEO Steve Jobs said he is "thrilled" about, comes on the heels of the May inclusion of Paul McCartney's post-Beatles Wings albums.
Ringo Starr's solo recordings are also on iTunes and George Harrison's widow, Olivia Harrison, has told reporters the deceased guitarist's solo works might be be coming soon.
Still No Beatles, Though
"Lennon is an icon and an awesome songwriter," Gartner (NYSE: IT) senior vice president Michael McGuire told MacNewsWorld. But the really big news will come on the day the full Beatles catalog comes to the iTunes Store, he said.
That day has been stymied by the long-running trademark dispute between Apple Inc. and the Beatles' Apple Corps.
"Obviously, this has been important to Apple because Steve Jobs obviously loves the Beatles," said McGuire. "It appears that what the lawyers and rights-holders are going to do is parcel it out. When the main catalog comes online is still to be determined."
Some Extra Goodies
Nevertheless, the availability on iTunes of 16 Lennon solo records is a big, if incremental, step.
"John would have loved the fact that his music will now be available in a format suited to a new generation of listeners," said Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono.
Apple is making the news even sweeter for Lennon fans by offering the "worldwide digital debuts" at the iTunes Store, of the "Lennon Legend" and "Acoustic" collections. Additionally, for 30 days, Apple is including exclusive video content with downloads of the albums "John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band," "Sometime in New York City," "Walls and Bridges," "Milk and Honey" and the collections "Anthology" and "Working Class Hero."
The Lennon albums will be available in iTunes Plus, Apple's digital rights management (DRM)-free format. That means they will be encoded at the higher-than-normal quality of 256 kbps (kilobits per second) "for audio quality virtually indistinguishable from the original recordings," Apple said, and will cost US$1.29 per song, 30 cents more per song than copy-protected iTunes songs.
Thrilled, Apparently
Apple spokesperson Jason Roth declined to discuss the company's efforts at bringing the full Beatles catalog, or even Harrison's solo work, to the iTunes Store. Nor would he talk about what was involved in securing the Lennon albums or even whether Apple is pleased about the deal 
. "I just have nothing to comment on it," Roth told MacNewsWorld.
However, in announcing the availability of Lennon's work, Jobs assured the world that he and his colleagues at Apple are "thrilled to have his solo catalog available on the iTunes Store." Jobs also praised the slain Beatle as being "one of the greatest artists of our time."
A blurb on the iTunes Store accompanying the Lennon collection is a bit more effusive, describing Lennon as "brilliant, reckless, confrontational, full of mercurial pop and good ol' fashioned rock 'n' roll" and insisting that the artist's "songs and albums are essential music for the rest of us."
Without the full Beatles catalog, however, the iTunes Store remains unsatisfying for those same people. As Gartner's McGuire noted, the fact that music from one of the most popular rock bands in history can't be found on the most popular music download site is a sore spot. Changing that is "clearly an objective for the folks at the iTunes Store," said McGuire.
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