iTunes sales of Beatles albums top 450,000 in first week

Apple announced exclusive access to digital sales of the Beatle's music last week, including a digital box set that includes 13 studio albums, a two-volume “Past Masters” compilation and the concert film “Live at the Washington Coliseum, 1964.”

According to a report by Billboard, Apple sold 119,000 albums in the US, including 13,000 digital box sales (which count as a single album in the US figures; the global sales numbers appear to count each box set component as an individual album sale).

The Beatles' best selling album on iTunes in the US was 1969's "Abbey Road," while the top selling song was that album's track, "Here Comes the Sun."

The report compared the Beatles' sales favorably against first-week digital track sales for superstar acts, which "this year typically ranged from 100,000 to 300,000 per title, while digital album sales ranged anywhere from 40,000 to 278,000 for Taylor Swift’s blockbuster third album 'Speak Now.'"

Apple has devoted its webpage to the iTunes Beatles announcement, and is running an extensive marketing campaign that includes prominent placement on iTunes as well as TV ads airing during primetime programming, including ABC's American Music Awards and NBC's Sunday Night Football.

The report stated that Apple's media campaign is "expected to kick into high gear this for Black Friday, with expanded TV advertising in the U.S. and full-page ads in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times."