Free For The Next 30 Days

San Francisco based Zaptunes has launched offering unlimited DRM free mp3 downloads for $25 per month. They say they're adding songs constantly, but have started with 8 million tracks from all four major labels and many indies. To kick things off, the $25 is waived for the next 30 days.

How Are Beatles Downloads Available?

Is Zaptunes too good to be true?  The availability of catalog from The Beatles - never been offered legally before - throws the service's legitimacy into question.

But yesterday in an email exchange, Zaptune's media spokesperson Anand Patel insisted that all its downloads had been licensed from the appropriate major and indie labels.  When asked about The Beatles,  Patel wrote, "We have a contract with Sony music, who hold the rights to most of the Beatles music. I am sorry, but right now I can not give you more details about this contract."

That's a rather unusual answer particularly since a variety of others including Apple and EMI control many of The Beatles' rights and its impossible to imagine the Fab Four's advisers or Sony picking this startup for their first ever digital release.

On their site, Zaptune's claims to have received $5 million in venture funding, but offers no specific sources. They now also have my credit card info - a requirement for a free account.  So far, I haven't been approved to try the service, but stay tuned...