A rather sketchy story from The Telegraph has started another Beatles-iTunes tizzy. It’s a different law of large numbers—the larger the dollar amount you can attach to a story with the words Beatles and iTunes, the more reverb it gets, whether or not it comes with actual info. The Telegraph quotes “some estimates” of the value of the Beatles’ catalog at roughly $603 million (£300 million), matches that with the expectation we all have that a download deal is coming this year now that certain legal obstacles are out of the way, tosses in the divorce settlement expected soon between Sir Paul McCartney and his estranged wife (Heather Mills) and comes up with an iTunes deal worth “up to” the catalog value. The biggest questions are still unanswered: when will the music be online (legitimately), will the deal be exclusive to iTunes and how many buyers will be paying for downloads of music they already own?

Meanwhile, I gave up and bought the albums I most wanted during the Borders Thanksgiving CD sale for DIY digital use.

-- The best piece of info from the British papers: Ladbrokes has Yesterday at 3-1 odds as the Beatles’ next hit single.

Daily Mail: The deal value is estimated at £200 million and a direct link is made to the likely cost of the McCartney divorce settlement. “As a result of various deals done in the past, EMI, Sony (NYSE: SNE) and Michael Jackson own recording or publishing rights to Beatles’ songs so will get some of the cash.” Date expected: by the end of the year.

• Beatles Catalog To Finally Go Digital In ‘08, McCartney Says; Still No Specific Date
• George Harrison’s Solo Music Goes Online; Next Step: Beatles
• EMI Adds Ringo Starr To McCartney Downloads; DRM-Free Swells Sales