The Beatles Legacy - Fought Over and Sold
The musical legacy of “The Beatles” has recently become an object of two big deals. The first deal applies to John Lennon’s
son Julian’s share of his financial stake in “The Beatles” songs co-written by his deceased father. He sold it to a New York
publishing company “Primary Wave Music Publishing”. The deal has nothing to do with John Lennon’s solo compositions,
although it applies to those written in cooperation with Paul McCartney (including “Hey Jude,” “I Want to Hold Your Hand”
and “All You Need Is Love”). According to the law, songwriters and their music publisher share royalties when a song is
licensed for use in a film, television commercial or other use. This gives Primary Wave an essential cut of Julian Lennon’s
share of the royalties. “I felt it was the appropriate time to take on a partner for both my interest in my father’s
legendary music and for my future music endeavors,” Lennon-junior said. As part of the deal, Primary Wave will help Julian
market his next album.
Nevertheless, the publishing rights for the Beatles catalog still belong to Sony/ATV Music Publishing, a joint venture
between Sony Corp. and Michael Jackson, while Britain’s EMI Group PLC owns the rights to the legendary group’s master
recordings.
The second big deal concerns namely the EMI Group PLC, which has finally settled down the royalties dispute with Apple
Corps company. EMI, the two companies said Thursday, raising hopes that Beatles recordings may soon be legally available
online. EMI – as a record label – have been releasing Beatles records under the Apple label without paying royalties to
Apple Corps. Apple Corps Ltd. (owned by Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and the widows of John Lennon and George Harrison), in
its turn claims it has thus received $60 million less, and sued EMI. “It was settled on mutually acceptable terms,” Apple
Corps and EMI said in a joint statement. The details of the settlement were again concealed.
As a result of this deal, EMI and Apple Corps are now free to negotiate a new royalties agreement that would include
Internet sales, so that The Beatles records can become available for legal download through iTunes. This is a great step
forward, because previously “The Beatles” have consistently refused to license their songs for music download sites.