Rock Band signs The Beatles?

THE Beatles have licensed songs to MTV Networks’ Rock Band videogame series, people familiar with the matter said.

The development is a coup for MTV, a unit of Viacom, in its battle with rival Activision for supremacy in the world of rock-music video games.

The deal, due for announcement today by MTV and the band’s own Apple Corps, makes the Beatles the latest and biggest major band to license its songs to a music-oriented videogame, joining Aerosmith, Metallica, AC/DC and others.

Rock Band and Activision’s Guitar Hero have engaged in heated competition over exclusive rights to use music by major acts.

The games Rock Band and Guitar Hero let players use miniature plastic game controllers, shaped like musical instruments, to play along with recorded rock and pop songs to test the players’ level of skill.

The game publishers have entered a handful of multi-million dollar licensing agreements with some of the biggest names in the business.

The Beatles represent by far the biggest prize yet in the category. Not only do they have the best-selling album catalogue of any band, they have not yet licensed their music for sale by download services such as Apple’s iTunes Store.

Apple Corps and MTV are hosting a press conference at 10 EST in New York City today to announce what they call “an exclusive agreement to develop (an) unprecedented global music project.”