http://192.168.2.6/english/披头士与iTunes携手合作.rm

You can buy the Beatles' latest album 'Love' here, but not here. Millions of people are legally downloading music over the Internet worldwide. Dance music, classical music, rap music, but they can't buy Beatles music.

Time and again, Apple Records has refused to sell Beatles tunes on iTunes or any other download service. But Fortune Magazine says all that may be changing. Apple and Apple may finally be coming together.

I'm hearing that they are getting very close now. It has been speculated for years that the Beatles would finally go online and they always denied it. Now it looks like Apple and Steve Jobs are getting in and they're trying to negotiate an exclusive.

One idea reportedly being discussed--a Beatles-branded iPod like the wildly popular U2 iPod.

More and more people are buying their music exclusively on line. The trend has caused some venerable institutions like this Tower Records in New York City to close their doors, and iconic bands, like the Beatles to rethink the way they sell their music.

Anthony DeCurtis, contributing editor at Rolling Stone Magazine, says a Beatles deal with iTunes will be a shot in the arm for the struggling music industry still battling illegal downloads.

The Beatles' going on iTunes would be huge, it would lend tremendous momentum to this process that has been going on for a while now of making music digitally available. And also, you know, it is the Beatles, there's still a tremendous level of interest in this band and it is the big get.

A Beatles iTunes deal would further cement Apple computer as the digital music leader. Even as Microsoft Zune and other MP3 players crowd the market. And it might finally settle the epic name game battle between / Apple - the tech company and Apple - the music label.

This still may not happen tomorrow, after all the Beatles were slow to put their music on CDs, but the industry thinks it is probably inevitable.

At a certain point, you know, you can't seem as if you don't know what is going on in the world of music, and what is going on in the world of music is digital download.

One thing is certain, expecting advertising and marketing blitz like no other, if the Beatles and Apple finally decide to let it be.

Maggie Lake, CNN, New York.