About twelve hours from now Apple is set to make a big announcement, and the smart money is on it being the Beatles catalogue appearing in the iTunes music store.

Five years ago, this would have been breakthrough news. Legal digital downloading was still struggling to prove itself and each big name that signed on further legitimised the idea of buying music without its plastic box and liner notes. One by one those big names came on board, sometimes reluctantly, and the Beatles went from being the must-have property to being a curious hold-out against the inevitable.

What's being proved today? It's two years since iTunes overtook Walmart as the number one music retailer in the USA, physical or digital. Apple, Amazon and their competitors don't need anybody to reassure them that they're "it", they know already. The Beatles signing up with iTunes might be a personal milestone for Steve Jobs, but outside Apple, even for a huge fan of the group such as myself, it's a bit meh.