Beatles' Label Sues Apple

The Beatles' London-based record label Apple Corps has sued Apple Computers for allegedly breaching an agreement that limits the technology giant's involvement in the music industry.

The record label first sued the computer maker shortly after Steve Jobs founded the company and named it in a tribute to the Beatles. The resulting settlement reportedly included a clause that Jobs' Apple wouldn't use its name to sell music. The label successfully sued the company again later when it began producing computers software and speakers that played music.

The current lawsuit, filed in London earlier this summer but only recently served to the California-based computer company, focuses on the hugely successful iPod digital music player and the iTunes Online Music Store, which legally sells prerecorded, copyrighted songs as MP3s for ninety-nine cents.

Apple Corps is jointly owned by Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon's widow Yoko Ono and the estate of George Harrison.

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Song Stories

“The A Team”

Ed Sheeran | 2011

This debut track from the then-20-year-old British singer-songwriter has a dark story behind it. Sheeran says he culls songwriting inspiration from "viewing other people's situations," which, for the heroine in "The A Team," involves drug addiction and prostitution that began as a teen. Sheeran paints the woman's trials with haunting imagery such as "But lately her face seems/Slowly sinking, wasting/Crumbling like pastries." "I did a gig at a homeless shelter, [and the song] is about one of the women there. It's her story," he said.

More Song Stories entries »

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