The first invasion of America by the British created a nation. The second British invasion? That created four icons who will never fade from memory or music: The Beatles. Though the Fab Four were Liverpool-born, their music has literally been played across the universe. One place it’s never been played is iTunes, but at last that’s all about to change.

Apple (the company behind the iMac) and Apple (the record label associated with The Beatles) have finally come to a deal. For a cool $400 million Apple (computers) purchased the rights to feature the tunes. The money will be split between the estates of the group members themselves, the Apple recording label, and Michael Jackson (who owns the publishing rights to many Beatles tracks).

Let’s start to pull this together. American Idol recently inked a deal with iTunes to display contestant songs. The show then magically managed to get the rights to sing the Lennon-McCartney song book for the first time in seven years, and iTunes suddenly has permission to include Beatles tunes in their listings. What wonders cross-promotion can create.