John Lennon (File photo)

    BEIJING, Nov. 10 (Xinhuanet) -- Twenty-five years after his death, John Lennon's entire solo catalog will go online next month, EMI Music said on Wednesday.

    The former Beatle's new greatest hits album "Working Class Hero" is the first selection of his music to go digital -- this week -- with some tracks to be made available as cell-phone downloads in coming weeks.

    But Lennon's tracks will not be available on iPods because of a row between the record industry and Apple computers over wholesale rates, the company said.

    Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, said she was happy her late husband's music would now be available to a new generation of digital music fans.

   "New technology is something he always embraced and this is something he would have loved," she said.

    The digital release of Lennon's songs roughly coincides with his 65th birthday last month and the 25th anniversary of his murder by a deranged fan outside his New York apartment building on December 8, 1980. He was 40 when he was killed. Enditem

    (Agencies)