Longon, England (November 16, 2007) - Somehow it''s come to this -- the increasing importance of iTunes in popular culture is such that it is actually newsworthy when a remaining iTunes hold-out gets closer to having their music available via the popular music downloading service.

The biggest holdout of them all -- the Beatles -- is one step closer now, according to Sir Paul McCartney in an interview with Billboard magazine.

"It''s down to fine-tuning, but I''m pretty sure it''ll be happening next year, 2008," said the famous member of Wings who also had a few hits with the Beatles.

"You''ve got to get these things right," he said. "You don''t want to do something that''s as cool as that and in three years time you think, ''Oh God, why did we do that?''"

Sir Paul''s other music has been on iTunes for a while now and so has Ringo''s. George Harrison''s went online last month.