This morning, Apple (AAPL) broadcast invitations to a product launch gathering to be held that day at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. The invite features another variation of the iconic iPod silhouette and the tagline, “It’s only rock and roll, but we like it,” so presumably the event will focus on music, as expected.

Beatles fans will no doubt note that Sept. 9 is also the day the group’s Rock Band videogame will arrive at market. Coincidence, or could Wednesday be the day the Beatles catalog finally comes to iTunes? We’ll find out next Wednesday.

MTV and Harmonix Come Together for Unprecedented Deal

Exclusive Agreement Set to Bring The Beatles Music to Fans for the First Time in Interactive Form Here, There and Everywhere in 2009 …

The Beatles’ extraordinary music and phenomenal legacy is set to rock across the universe in the form of a video game …”

– Excerpts from Apple Corps/MTV Games/Harmonix press release

So those reports that the Beatles’ Apple Corps was in talks with Rock Band developers MTV Networks and Harmonix over the creation of a Beatles-themed videogame? True.

According to a Beatles pun-riddled joint press release from Apple Corps Ltd., MTV and Harmonix this morning (what, no “Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey”?), the companies have inked an exclusive agreement to develop what they exuberantly describe as “an unprecedented, experiential progression through and celebration of the music and artistry of The Beatles.”

“The project is a fun idea which broadens the appeal of The Beatles and their music,” Beatle Paul McCartney said in a statement. I like people having the opportunity to get to know the music from the inside out.”

“It’s cool,” added Yoko Ono Lennon, perhaps dreaming of a “Rock Plastic Ono Band” edition of the game. “I love it and hope it will keep inspiring and encouraging the young generation for many decades.”

No word yet on how much of the Beatles catalog is involved here–or if it will feature a “Revolution 9″ minigame. But that’s beside the point, really. The fact that the band, which has long refused to distribute its music digitally, has licensed its catalog at all is a triumph for MTV Networks. This is a monumental adjustment in the Apple Corps approach to digital distribution and one that could herald future deals with Apple’s (AAPL) iTunes service (Beatles fan Steve Jobs must be beside himself today), Amazon and others.

For YouTube, which has been struggling to monetize the 330 million visitors coming its way each month, this may be the beginning of the business model that has so far eluded it. That said, the company is going to have to offer those visitors a bit more than grainy “MacGyver” reruns if it hopes to prevent them from turning to Hulu for premium long-form video content.

This morning, Sony BMG became the second record label to jump on board the Finnish phone giant’s Comes With Music offering, which–when it launches in the second half of 2008, will package mobile phones with a year of unlimited access to music. There are, however, certain caveats to that value proposition, as I pointed out last December:

Though Comes With Music does indeed permit owners of certain Nokia cellphones to download as many songs as humanly possible in one year (with no per-song data charges), transfer them to a PC and keep them at the end of that time, they must pay a per-song usage fee to burn them to CD. What’s more, the songs are wrapped in Microsoft’s (MSFT) ironically named ‘Plays for Sure’ digital-rights management scheme, which prevents them from being played on the iPod, Zune, etc. Finally, another 12 months access to the music catalog requires the purchase of a brand new phone.”

Clearly, Sony, like Universal (VIV.PA) before it, doesn’t see these issues as off-putting to consumers. “When you give consumers the key to the candy store without any limitations, there’s a lot more opportunity for discovering music that you might not have found before,” said Thomas Hesse, president of global digital business and U.S. sales for Sony BMG Music Entertainment. “We think this will energize the discovery of music.”

It might energize Sony BMG’s bottom line a bit as well. When Universal first signed up for Comes with Music, sources close to the company said that Nokia would pay the label up to $35 for every phone that offers access to its library. Nokia subsequently denied it was paying that amount, but it’s definitely paying something–to Universal, Sony and whatever other labels it manages to line up for the service.

With their trademark dispute over the “Apple” brand finally settled and the solo work of Beatles John Lennon and Paul McCartney already for sale on iTunes, Apple (AAPL) and the Beatles’ Apple Corps. are rumored to be negotiating a business alliance that will bring the Fab Four’s remastered back catalog to the digital music store–for a sum of as much as $600 million.

Reports of the deal have the Beatles’ back catalog arriving on iTunes “within months,” perhaps even accompanied by a special edition “Yellow Submarine” iPod. That said, they should all be taken with a grain of salt–if not an entire salt flat. Apple has already dismissed them as “unsubstantiated speculation.” “This is not news, nor is it a scoop,” an Apple spokesman told Billboard.

Perhaps. Perhaps not. Discussing a potential iTunes deal with Billboard.com last November, McCartney said “it’s down to fine-tuning, but I’m pretty sure it’ll be happening next year, 2008.”