Norwegian Beatles podcast pulled

The Beatles' music is not currently available to download legally

A Norwegian broadcaster has cancelled plans to put the Beatles' entire back catalogue on a series of free podcasts.

Earlier this week, NBK - the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation - said it had begun posting 212 tracks online, with each song preceded by a short talk.

But the plan has had to be curtailed because it breaches the broadcaster's agreement with rights holders.

"Due to terms still under negotiation, our own lawyers have advised us to pull back the podcasts," said NBK.

"This is not how we would like things to be," it continued. "But we can't break our agreements."

The Fab Four material featured on a 2007 radio series entitled Our Daily Beatles, which preceded each number with a discussion, in Norwegian, on its origins.

'Stalled'

Having recently signed a new deal with TONO, the administration that administers copyrights for music in Norway, NBK believed it was entitled to podcast the series.

However, IFPI - the organisation that represents the recording industry's interests worldwide - has only allowed programmes aired in the last month to be podcast.

The Norwegian broadcaster said it hoped to reach fresh agreements that would enable more of its extensive archive to be made available for download.

The Beatles are one of the few bands whose work is not available for legal download on iTunes and other download services.

According to Sir Paul McCartney, negotiations between EMI - which owns the Beatles recordings - and Apple Corps - the company set up by the band to look after their catalogue - have "stalled".