Who Owns the Beatles Catalogue?

There is no single owner of the Beatles catalogue — there are three, and they own different things. The songs (publishing) belong to Sony Music Publishing. The recordings (masters) belong to Universal Music Group. The band’s business, name and film archive belong to Apple Corps, owned by Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and the Lennon and Harrison estates. US copyright reversion has been returning McCartney’s share of the publishing since 2018. Ownership verified 6 September 2026.

Who owns Beatles Catalog?

The question has three answers because a recorded song is two separate copyrights, and almost every dispute about the Beatles turns on the difference:

• The composition — the words and music of Yesterday. This is publishing, and it is owned by Sony Music Publishing.
• The sound recording — the Beatles’ 1965 performance of it. This is the master, owned by Universal Music Group through Capitol and the former EMI.
• The band as a business — the name, the logo, the films, the Apple trademark. Apple Corps Limited, owned by the surviving Beatles and the estates of the other two.

So Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr do own part of the Beatles. They do not own most of the songs, and they never owned the recordings.

Parent company and ownership structure

Sony Music Publishing is part of Sony Group Corporation of Japan, listed in Tokyo and New York. It acquired full ownership of the catalogue in 2016.

Universal Music Group is listed in Amsterdam. Its largest shareholders include the Bolloré family interests through Vivendi and the Chinese group Tencent — neither controlling. UMG holds the Beatles masters because it bought EMI’s recorded music business in 2012; Sony bought EMI’s publishing arm in the same break-up. EMI was dismantled and its two halves went to rival buyers, which is why the songs and the recordings have different owners today.

Apple Corps Limited is a British company, founded by the Beatles in 1968 and still owned by them and their heirs. It is the only part of this structure the band ever controlled.

Major shareholders or controlling interests

No individual controls Sony or Universal. Both are widely held listed companies, and the Beatles catalogue is one asset among tens of thousands in each.

The interest that has actually shifted is McCartney’s, and it shifted through law rather than purchase. The US Copyright Act of 1976 gives songwriters a right to terminate earlier transfers of copyright after 56 years and recover the publisher’s share — a right that cannot be signed away in advance.

The earliest Lennon–McCartney songs reached that point in 2018, and further songs have reverted each year since, with the catalogue’s main body reaching the threshold by 2026. McCartney has recovered his share of the US publishing on the songs he wrote, progressively, without paying anything for it.

John Lennon’s share has not followed. Sony reached an agreement with Yoko Ono that leaves Lennon’s share with the company until 2050, seventy years after his death.

This is US law only, and that matters for British readers. The UK has no equivalent termination right: here, and across most of the world, the publishing remains with Sony. A song can therefore have different owners in different countries — the same composition, the same year, two answers depending on where the royalty is collected.

Other media assets in the group

Sony Music Publishing is among the largest publishers in the world, holding catalogues by Queen, Bob Dylan, Michael Jackson and many others. Sony Group also owns PlayStation, Sony Pictures and Columbia Records.

Universal Music Group owns Capitol, Island, Interscope, Polydor and Decca, and holds the recorded catalogues of the Rolling Stones, Elton John and Abba among others.

Apple Corps owns the Beatles’ films, the Apple Records label and the band’s trademarks. Its long trademark dispute with Apple Inc. — the computer company — ran from 1978 to 2007 and was settled with Apple Inc. taking ownership of the Apple trademarks and licensing some back. The two companies remain entirely separate, and Apple Corps does not own any part of Apple Inc.

Ownership history

The catalogue’s history is a case study in songwriters losing control of their own work.

• 1963 — Northern Songs is formed by manager Brian Epstein and publisher Dick James to hold Lennon–McCartney compositions. Lennon and McCartney hold shares but not control.
• 1969 — James sells his stake to ATV without telling them. Lennon and McCartney attempt to buy the company and fail.
• 1985 — Michael Jackson buys ATV Music for a reported $47.5m, outbidding McCartney — who had, years earlier, advised Jackson that music publishing was a good investment.
• 1995 — Jackson merges ATV with Sony’s publishing arm to create Sony/ATV, retaining half.
• 2016 — Sony buys the Jackson estate’s 50% for a reported $750m, taking full ownership.
• 2018–2026 — US copyright reversion begins returning McCartney’s share.

The 1963 arrangement is the root of all of it. Two young songwriters signed a publishing deal they did not fully understand, and the consequence has run for more than sixty years.

Sources and verification

This page rests on no Companies House evidence for the catalogue itself. Copyright ownership is not recorded on any UK company register, and there is no public database that will tell you who owns a song.

The authoritative sources are different in kind: Sony‘s and Universal‘s own filings and catalogue disclosures; the US Copyright Office, where termination notices under the 1976 Act are filed and are a matter of public record; and the collecting societies — PRS for Music and MCPS in Britain — whose works databases record who is registered to receive royalties for a given composition. That last is the closest thing to a public register of song ownership, and it is the right place to look.

Apple Corps Limited is a UK company and does file at Companies House, but its filings cover the company, not the copyrights. Figures for the 1985 and 2016 transactions are reported rather than filed.