Apple Corps
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Image:Applecorps.jpg Apple Corps Ltd. is a multi-armed multimedia corporation founded in January 1968 by British rock band The Beatles, who dissolved their earlier company Beatles Ltd. to form a conglomerate. Its chief division (and the only profitable one) is Apple Records, launched the same year. Other divisions included Apple Electronics, Apple Films, Apple Publishing, and Apple Retail, whose most notable venture was the ill-fated Apple Boutique in London. Its managing director is former Beatles road manager (and accountancy student) Neil Aspinall. Apple's headquarters in the late 1960s was at 3 Savile Row in London, known as the Apple Building, which was also home to Apple Studio.
The Beatles' accountants had informed the group that they had a large amount of capital which they could either invest in a business venture, or else lose it to the tax man<ref>"Our accountant came up and said, 'We got this amount of money. Do you want to give it to the government or do something with it?' So we decided to play businessmen for a bit, because, uhh, we've got to run our own affairs now. So, we've got this thing called 'Apple' which is going to be records, films, and electronics--which all tie up.", John Lennon, Beatles interview on The Tonight Show, 14 May, 1968. (link)</ref> In addition to providing an umbrella to cover the Beatles' own financial and business affairs, Apple was intended to provide a means of financial support to anyone in the wider world struggling to get 'worthwhile' artistic projects off the ground<ref>Lennon: "It's a company we're setting up involving records, films, and electronics, and as a sideline-- manufacturing or whatever. We want to set up a system where people who just want to make a film about anything don't have to go on their knees in somebody's office. Probably yours."McCartney: "It's just trying to mix business with enjoyment. We're in the happy position of not needing any more money. So for the first time, the bosses aren't in it for profit. We've already bought all our dreams. We want to share that possibility with others."<p/>Beatles press conference announcing the launch of Apple, 1968 (link)</ref>. It was pitched to the world's media by John Lennon and Paul McCartney as an attempt at "Western Communism". The company name originated with McCartney, coming from a René Magritte painting he'd acquired Template:Fact; "Apple Core" (Corps) was a play on words all the Beatles enjoyed. The ubiquitous logo was designed by Gene Mahon, with illustrator Alan Aldridge transcribing the copyright notice to appear on record releases. The first two years of the company's existence coincided with a sharp decline in personal relations within the Beatles, ultimately leading to the break-up of the band in 1970. Apple quickly slid into financial chaos, which was only resolved after many years of litigation. When the Beatles' partnership was dissolved in 1975, dissolution of Apple Corps was also considered, but it was decided to keep it going, while effectively retiring all its divisions. The company exists today, mostly performing as the licensing agent for Beatles-related products, and supervising reissues of Apple Records, plus new issues of Beatles recordings and related media. The company is apparently now owned by Apple Corps SA (a Swiss company) and its company secretary is listed as Standby Films Ltd., believed to be a vehicle of managing director Neil Aspinall. The company is currently headquartered at 27 Ovington Square, in London's prestigious Knightsbridge district. Apple Corps has had a long history of trademark disputes with Apple Computer, and (as of 2006) the two companies are still involved in litigation.
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Apple Electronics
Apple Electronics was the electronics division of Apple Corps, originally founded as Fiftyshapes Ltd., and headed by Beatles associate Magic Alex (Yanni Alexis Mardas).
Intending to revolutionise the consumer electronics market, largely through products based on Magic Alex's unique (and as it turned out, commercially impractical) designs, the company never made any breakthroughs. Even a planned apple-shaped radio could not be produced at a competitive price, and was ultimately beaten out by Panasonic's "ball and chain" radio.
After the dismissal of Magic Alex in 1969 (during Allen Klein's "housecleaning" of Apple Corps), Apple Electronics fell victim to the same forces that troubled the company as a whole, including the impending Beatles breakup.
While it never made a dent in the marketplace, Apple Electronics was still considered a viable business entity years later, when Apple Corps and Apple Computer went into litigation.
Apple Films
Apple Films was the filmmaking division of Apple Corps. Notable releases included Born To Boogie, Ringo Starr's 1972 documentary about T. Rex, Concert For Bangladesh by George Harrison And Friends, also appearing that year, and 1974's Son of Dracula, which teamed Starr with singer Harry Nilsson (in the title role).
Apple Publishing
Apple's music publishing arm predated even the record company. One of the first artists on its publishing roster was the group Grapefruit: Apple published the group's self-penned songs from early 1968, though Grapefruit's records were mostly released on RCA.
Apple Publishing Ltd was also used as a publishing stopgap by George Harrison and Ringo Starr as they sought to shift control of their own songs away from Northern Songs, in which their status was little more than paid writers. (Harrison later started Harrisongs Music, and Starr Startling Music.)
Probably Apple's greatest publishing successes were the Badfinger hits, No Matter What and Day After Day, as well as Without You, also penned by Badfinger's Pete Ham and Tom Evans, later a massive hit for Nilsson and Mariah Carey. Apple also undertook publishing duties at various times for other Apple artists, including Yoko Ono, Billy Preston, Doris Troy, and the Radha Krishna Temple. In 2005, Apple lost the US publishing rights for the work of Ham and Evans<ref>Dan Matovina, Badfinger biographer and representative (link)</ref>.
Apple Records
Main Article: Apple Records (and Zapple Records).
From 1968 onwards, new releases by The Beatles were issued on the Apple Records label, although the copyright remained with EMI, and Parlophone/Capitol catalogue numbers were used. Other Apple releases, however, used a new set of numbers, and the copyrights were mostly held by Apple Corps Ltd. Unlike a mere "vanity label", Apple Records developed an extremely eclectic roster of their own, releasing records by artists as diverse as Indian sitar guru Ravi Shankar, Welsh easy listening songstress Mary Hopkin, the power pop band Badfinger, classical music composer John Tavener, soul singer Billy Preston, the Modern Jazz Quartet, and even the London Radha Krishna Temple. A shortlived subsidiary, Zapple Records, was intended to release spoken word and avant garde records but folded after just two releases, John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Life with the Lions, and George Harrison's Electronic Sound.
Image:Appleboutiquepainted.jpg
Apple Retail
Main Article: Apple Boutique.
The Apple Boutique was a retail store, located at 94 Baker Street in London, England, and was one of the first business ventures made by the fledgling Apple Corps. The store opened on December 7, 1967 and closed its doors for the last time on July 30, 1968.
Apple Studio
Apple Studio was a recording studio located in the basement of the Apple Corps headquarters at 3 Savile Row.
Originally designed by Magic Alex (of Apple Electronics), the initial installation proved to be unworkable, with almost no standard studio features (such as a patch bay, or a talkback system between the studio and the control room, let alone Alex's promised innovations), and had to be scrapped. The Beatles recorded (and filmed) portions of Let It Be there with equipment borrowed from EMI, and had to shut down the building's central heating (also located in the basement) during takes, because of the lack of soundproofing.
Redesigning and rebuilding the basement to accommodate proper recording facilities took eighteen months, and necessitated ‘floating’ the townhouse; a difficult engineering task. The work was completed in 1970 and 1971, and the rebuilt studio (including its own natural echo chamber) offered a wide range of recording and mastering facilities, and could turn out mono, stereo and quadrophonic master tapes and discs. In 1971 it would have cost £37 an hour to record to 16 track, £29 an hour to mix to stereo, and £12 to cut a 12” master.Template:Fact
The studio became a second home for Apple Records artists (though they also used Abbey Road and other studios), and other artists such as Harry Nilsson, Wishbone Ash, Viv Stanshall, Lou Reizner, Clodagh Rodgers, Kilburn and the High Roads, and (as shown in the movie Born To Boogie), Marc Bolan also worked there; the existence of acetates by many 70s performers is evidence that it was widely used.
When the disbanded Beatles finally moved their offices away from Savile Row in the mid-1970s, the studio was closed permanently.
Legal battle with Apple Computer
- Main article: Notable litigation of Apple Computer
In 1978, Apple Records filed suit against Apple Computer for trademark infringement. The suit settled in 1981 with an amount of $80,000 being paid to Apple Corps. As a condition of the settlement, Apple Computer agreed to stay out of the music business. The case arose in 1989 again when Apple Corps sued, claiming Apple Computer's machines' ability to playback MIDI music was a violation of the 1981 settlement agreement. In 1991 another settlement of around $26.5 million was reached. <ref>news.com: Apple vs. Apple: Perfect harmony?</ref> In September 2003 Apple Computer was sued by Apple Corps again, this time for introducing iTunes and the iPod which Apple Corps believed was a violation of the previous agreement by Apple not to distribute music. <ref>legalzoom.com: Apple v Apple: What is at the core of The Beatles’ Apple Records vs. Apple Ipod…</ref> The trial opened on March 29, 2006 in the UK. <ref>Apple giants do battle in court</ref>
Bibliography
- DiLello, Richard (1973). The Longest Cocktail Party: An Insider's Diary of the Beatles, Their Million-dollar Apple Empire and Its Wild Rise and Fall, Canongate Books Ltd. ISBN 1841956023.
References
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| A Hard Day's Night (1964) | Help! (1965) | Magical Mystery Tour (1967) | Yellow Submarine (1968) | Let it Be (1970) |
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