THIS IS THE BEST CHRISTMAS PRESENT EVER.

The Beatles, whose music has always been conspicuously absent from music streaming services, are coming to Spotify – and Apple Music, Tidal, Google Play, Deezer and Amazon Prime too.

The catalogue will land tomorrow; perfect timing for a White (Album) Christmas.

It wasn't an announcement that anybody particularly expected, given the power the band still have over the industry some 45 years after their break-up – and the perception that streaming was not a necessary weapon to add to their arsenal.

After all, it wasn't until October 2009 that they even made the move to digital – and even then, it was in an exclusive deal with Apple, leading a lot of fans to suspect that any streaming announcement would be exclusive to that company.

But hey. Switching from Spotify to a music library programme for just one artist was starting to become a bit of a bane – so while they sure took their sweet time about all this, we're not complaining in the slightest.