Writing for The Boston Globe , Chris Gaither reports that The Rolling Stones are finally making their music available through commercial online music services, although Mac users will have to wait a while to get their hands on the goods. The news comes in a new article entitled Stones open vaults to Net downloads.
Gaither said that EMI Music plans to announce Monday a two-week exclusive deal with Rhapsody, the RealNetworks Inc.-owned music service. The songs will also be available through On Demand Distribution or OD2, a European music service whose partners include Microsoft Corp.
Gaither quotes an EMI spokesperson as saying that Apple’s own iTunes Music Store and other Rhapsody competitors will gain access to the Rolling Stones library in September. No confirmation was available from Apple as MacCentral posted this article.
Some of the Rolling Stones’ early works are not going to be available for download, however, due to licensing restrictions. The Stones’ works prior to 1971 were recorded for Abkco Records, and thus are available only for streaming through Rhapsody, as opposed to downloading and burning.