Beatles are on iTunes today

UPDATE: As of this morning, the Beatles are now available on iTunes. The quartet whose hair Justin Bieber owes his look to dominates the store's homepage, with a concert clip and highlight reel in addition to the album selections, for your viewing pleasure. Seventeen albums, including the $149 digital special "Beatles Box Set," which features the "Live at the Washington Coliseum, 1964" concert film, a worldwide iTunes exclusive that captures the Beatles’ first US concert. Also in the mix: the $19.99 Beatles 1962-1966 compilation and the $12.99 "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." Fans can also buy individual tracks for $1.29 apiece.

To summarize what's available: 13 remastered studio albums with iTunes LPs, the two-volume "Past Masters" compilation and the classic "Red" and "Blue" collections.

When an iTunes banner announced that tomorrow would be a day "you'll never forget," we speculated that it probably hinted at the arrival of the Beatles catalog on iTunes. The Wall Street Journal says that the Beatles are, in fact, on their way.

Though there's no official comment from Apple, EMI or Paul McCartney, and "there is still a chance that Apple could change plans at the last minute," the deal was allegedly cut last week, said the Journal.

Music biz watcher Billboard has all but confirmed the news. "After a day of phone calls, e-mails and cryptic messages, Billboard.biz is sticking its neck out and saying this is what we're going to hear tomorrow."