The Beatles
revolution in the music business

Why The Beatles?

To lift the lid on the music industry, it’s useful to read about a band you like. Any successful band will do, but The Beatles are particularly useful. Today’s music business was largely invented in the mid-Fifties and early Sixties.

In 1960 there were no record shops—you’d buy mono records at a counter in the furniture shop that sold gramophones. Although there were short-lived pop TV programmes in the late Fifties, there was no pop music radio in the UK and you could only hear chart records on the BBC. Young people endured their parents’ music to hear the occasional pop tracks on Two-Way Family Favourites (a programme for servicemen and their families) or Pick of the Pops. There were no DJs in the UK until the mid-Sixties and the best music was on Radio Luxembourg, a European AM station with very poor reception. Bands had virtually no amplification. Decent instruments were expensive and hard to find, and you couldn’t get guitar strings in most towns. There were no samplers or synthesisers. The venues were theatres, cinemas and ballrooms.

By 1970 we had stereo, Mellotrons, Moogs, Virgin, Radio One (a poor substitute for the outlawed pirate stations), music festivals, stadium rock and a sales chart where easy listening, middle of the road and musicals were rare. The Who, The Kinks, The Small Faces, The Stones, influences from the USA and many others played a part but The Beatles were central. They also covered most areas of the business: gigging and touring, recording, writing and publishing, films, merchandise and even retail.

The Beatles are probably the best documented band of all time. The press logged a huge amount of information, The Beatles and their entourage were great communicators, EMI kept very good records and researchers have spent years on the subject.

Beatles music business

Here are some of the basics of The Beatles business. I strongly recommend reading up on the band and the background. Brian Epstein wasn’t a music manager, George Martin wasn’t a pop producer, Parlophone wasn’t a pop label and Dick James was new to publishing. Some people criticise the deals they made, but experienced managers have made worse mistakes since.

The Beatles main companies

These are the main companies involved in The Beatles business in the Sixties, roughly in the order they occurred. There were many others, including several companies for their films, investments and other territories.

The Beatles business in 1965

This is roughly what The Beatles business looked like in 1965 when Northern Songs was floated on the Stock Exchange.

It’s hard to say exactly how the business was organised without access to financial records and contracts, so this is an informed guess. Various sources give different values, percentages and shares. This is probably down to guesswork, different viewpoints and the fact that circumstances changed over time. Shares in Northern Songs weren’t all the same type, and once trading began their value changed. Paul had more shares than John by April 1969, and it’s likely that George and Ringo had shares for their publishing up to 1968 when their contracts ended. NEMS 25% came off the top and EMI, for example, used to pay Epstein’s management commission direct.

Beatle Money has more detail about various angles but it’s not possible to reconcile all the different papers and memoirs precisely.

Northern Songs, NEMS and Apple Corps

Brian’s death left The Beatles business in disarray. He had considered selling 51% of NEMS to Robert Stigwood in March 1967 but the deal fell through and Stigwood later left NEMS (taking the Bee Gees and Cream) to form RSO. Brian had also planned for what would become Apple Corps, but legal and financial disputes resulting from his death and The Beatles’ breakup continued into the late 1980s.

Paul agreed with winding down Apple, but held back from endorsing Allen Klein and financing the bid for Northern Songs. He didn’t approve the Phil Spector production of Let It Be and after Abbey Road had little to do with Apple until the Anthology project in the 1990s.

The Beatles albums, EPs, singles and films

Here is a simple list of Beatle record and film titles (including LPs, EPs and singles) in UK release date order. Double A sides are also shown.

There are more detailed timelines of The Beatles story and recordings here.