Names and faces
Years of waiting are over for Beatles fans who want to listen to the Fab Four’s music on streaming services such as Apple Music and Spotify. Beatles songs will be available at one minute past midnight today around the world on nine streaming services including Apple, Spotify, Deezer and Google Play, the band’s record label, Vivendi SA’s Universal Music Group, said Wednesday in a statement. All 13 original Beatles albums, such as Help!, Revolver and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, are included, as are four compilation albums. The British band was the most significant holdout to resist streaming, which can generate less revenue for artists than album sales. Yet with consumers increasingly opting to stream music rather than purchase it, other best-selling bands such as Led Zeppelin gradually have signed on to broaden their fan bases — and increase sales. Subscription and ad-supported streaming generated more than $2 billion in global sales in 2014, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, accounting for about almost a third of all digital music sales. The Beatles’ resistance to streaming mirrors the band’s refusal to sell digital downloads. The group’s catalog didn’t appear on Apple’s iTunes until 2010. “The Beatles catalog has always been late to the party,” said Mark Mulligan, an analyst for London-based Midia Research. “But the Beatles are a unique proposition. They can afford to set their owns terms, their own timetable.”
Real Housewives of New Jersey star Teresa Giudice was freed from prison Wednesday after serving nearly a year for bankruptcy fraud, enabling her to return home to spend Christmas with her family. Giudice’s lawyer said she was released about 5 a.m. from Danbury Federal Correctional Institution in Connecticut. She traveled home to Montville, N.J., in a black SUV and will be placed on home confinement until Feb. 5, attorney James Leonard said, though she is expected to spend Christmas Eve at her brother’s home. “She’s safe and sound in her own home. She’s very happy to be here,” Leonard said. “She’s very much looking forward to a nice, quiet, low-key holiday with her family.” A black Lexus SUV with a red bow on top was waiting in the driveway when she arrived. Giudice was sent to prison to serve a 15-month sentence in January. She earned early release with good behavior. She and her husband, Joe Giudice, pleaded guilty last year to bankruptcy fraud. They admitted hiding assets from bankruptcy creditors and submitting phony loan applications to get about $5 million in mortgages and construction loans. Joe Giudice is expected to start his own 3½-year prison sentence in March. A federal judge staggered the two’s sentences in deference to their daughters.