One by one, our beloved icons from past musical eras have conceded their catalogs to the digital age. The Beatles estate, which didn’t allow Beatles music to be sold on iTunes until 2010, was one of the final holdouts—contrary to common 1964 consensus, the Beatles were not for sale. The band was also late to the streaming game, and it wasn’t until this past Christmas Eve that they allowed their music to appear on various streaming services. Their arrival was a major boon to the shifting paradigm in the music industry, one that’s steadily moving from a purchase model to a streaming model.

In less than a month, the Beatles had been streamed over 250 million times—on Spotify alone—but it still wasn’t everything. Diehards may have been disappointed that the three Beatles Anthologies hadn’t been included in the original streaming bundle. Said anthologies, released in 1995 and 1996 as two-disco volumes, officially arrived today.

According to a press release, the Anthology albums “were remastered at Abbey Road Studios by the same team of engineers responsible for The Beatles’ Grammy-winning 2009 studio album remasters.” The three collections include more than six hours of studio outtakes and alternate versions, each covering a separate Beatles era. Anthology, Volumes 1-3—as the streaming package is titled—also includes “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love,” demos recorded by John Lennon that were posthumously completed by the rest of the band in 1995. For Beatles fans, today is a pretty good day in the life.

Was anybody out there especially peeved when these weren’t initially included? Is your angst sufficiently quelled? Let us know in the comments.

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HT: Entertainment Weekly

IMAGE: DeviantArt // AZIZA-FEMI