Songs are now available on Spotify, Amazon Prime and Apple Music

Beatles songs were streamed an astonishing 50 million times in the first 48 hours after they became available to listen to live on the internet for the first time.

The hits of the Fab Four, who broke up in 1970, are now being enjoyed by a new young audience, with 65 per cent of the Beatles’ listeners on streaming service Spotify under the age of 34.

The arrival of their songs on such digital formats has been delayed for years by bickering over contracts.

Fab Four: The Beatles' songs were streamed 50 million times in the first 48 hours they were available (file photo)

But since being made available on Spotify, Amazon Prime, Apple Music and other sites from midnight on Christmas Eve, the band’s much-loved catalogue means their music is being enjoyed by a generation who are strangers to older forms of music technology.

The most popular Beatles song so far is Come Together, which has already been streamed more than 1.8 million times.

Analysis from Brandwatch also found 46,000 mentions of 'The Beatles Streaming' on social media within hours of the launch.

The majority, 87 per cent, were found to be positive, while 13 per cent were negative.

Brandwatch also created a topic cloud concerning mentions of The Beatles streaming, which revealed Spotify was the most talked about streaming site, followed by Apple Music.

Here, There and Everywhere: Pictured, Brandwatch's topic cloud regarding mentions of The Beatles streaming

Elsewhere, the top hashtags included #beatles, #spotify and #beatlesonspotify.