What’s likely to be one of the biggest boons to digital music downloads so far is still creeping ever closer. The Beatles’ material should go online “soon” in ‘08 - and that’s from the horse’s mouth. Paul McCartney (via Billboard): “It’s all happening soon. Most of us are all sort of ready. 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. It’s down to fine-tuning, but I’m pretty sure it’ll be happening next year, 2008.” The long-awaited releases have been delayed by “contractual” issues and deliberate planning, Macca said.

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Each individual member of the group already has solo material for sale digitally. Their Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) Corps company and EMI label settled copyright disputes with Apple in February and April respectively, paving the way for an iTunes release - McCartney said other barriers were “virtually settled” a in May. So… we’ll keep a watching brief…