Harrison widow sees Beatles online deal in '08

By Dean Goodman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Beatles fans will probably have to wait until next year before they can buy the Fab Four's tunes from online retailers such as Apple's iTunes store, George Harrison's widow said on Friday.

A recent settlement to a lengthy trademark dispute between Apple and the Beatles' company, Apple Corps, has cleared the way for the band to distribute its catalogue in cyberspace.

But Olivia Harrison told Reuters, "We just have a few things to work out elsewhere."

Specifically, all the Beatles CDs have been remastered -- good news for fans who have long complained about the poor sound quality -- and the organization wants to get the artwork ready for the physical packages.

Asked if the catalogue would be available online by the end of next year, she said, "Oh God, yeah. Hope so ... I don't know if it would be the end of this year, but it would be nice. Imminent, let's put it that way."

Paul McCartney, who has adopted an aggressive digital marketing strategy for the release next week of his solo album, "Memory Almost Full," told trade publication Billboard last month that an online deal for the Beatles catalogue was "virtually settled." But he, too, shied away from saying that anything would happen in the short term.

The Beatles are the highest-profile omission from digital retailers. While the dispute with Apple did not help, the band's organization has traditionally adopted a conservative approach to new technology, including CDs.

"I think we're a little bit behind," Harrison said, noting that it was "ridiculous" that properly remastered CDs of the band's catalogue were not yet available.