The Beatles’ music and image continue to generate millions for the band’s four families more than five decades after the group last performed together in public.
Yoko Ono Lennon, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney and Olivia Harrison each received around €10 million from Apple Corps over the latest financial year, according to the company’s newly filed accounts.
The four shareholders each hold a 25% stake in the company, which has served as the Beatles’ main commercial vehicle since it was established in 1963.
The payments represent an increase of around 65% compared with the previous financial year.
A business built around the Beatles’ legacy
Apple Corps manages the commercial exploitation of the Beatles’ intellectual property through a number of subsidiaries and associated companies.
Its activities include music catalogues and copyrights, the use of the Beatles’ name and image, and film and other production projects.
The company’s 2025 accounts were approved on September 28 and filed in London two days later.
Between February and December 2025, group revenue reached £44 million, equivalent to around €51 million. That compares with £27.5 million in the previous 12-month period, an increase of roughly 60% in sterling terms.
However, the comparison is affected by a change in the company’s financial year and the closure of a US joint venture. Apple Corps said management nevertheless recorded a significant increase in underlying activity.
Almost €40 million distributed
The largest payments to the four shareholders came through fees for promotional services and the use of their names and images.
Each received around €8.9 million through their respective interests or related companies, compared with approximately €5 million in the previous financial year.
A further dividend of more than €1 million per shareholder brought the total distributed to the four families to around €40 million.
Those figures do not include income generated independently by each family through personal rights and assets that are not managed by Apple Corps.
Olivia Harrison is the beneficiary of a trust that directly holds the Harrison family’s stake in the company.
Two Lennon representatives on the board
Each of the four families has representation on Apple Corps’ board. The Lennon family has two representatives: Yoko Ono Lennon and her son Sean Ono Lennon, who oversees family interests that include substantial property and land holdings.
The company remains a rare example of a business whose commercial power has continued for generations despite the disappearance of the original group.
The Beatles’ final public performance took place on January 30, 1969, when the band played an impromptu concert on the rooftop of Apple Corps’ headquarters at 3 Savile Row in London.
Fifty-seven years later, the music business created around the group continues to generate substantial annual income for its surviving members and the estates of John Lennon and George Harrison.
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