Northern Songs

Northern Songs Ltd was a limited company founded in 1963, by music publisher Dick James, artist manager Brian Epstein, and songwriters John Lennon and Paul McCartney of the Beatles, to publish songs written by Lennon and McCartney. In 1965, it was decided to make Northern Songs a public company, to reduce their income tax burden.

After Epstein died in 1967, Lennon and McCartney sought to renegotiate their publishing deal with James but, early in 1969, James and his partner sold their shares in Northern Songs to Britain's Associated Television (ATV), without warning Lennon or McCartney. Lennon and McCartney attempted to gain a controlling interest in Northern Songs but their bid failed, because the financial power of Lew Grade ensured that Northern Songs passed into the control of ATV. Allen Klein (then de facto Beatles manager) attempted to set up a deal for Apple Corps to buy out ATV, but that also failed.

McCartney once informed Michael Jackson about the financial value of music publishing, because Jackson had enquired about the process of acquiring songs and how songs were used. According to McCartney, Jackson then said, "I'm going to get [the Beatles' songs]".^[1] Jackson did indeed purchase ATV Music in 1985. Both McCartney and Yoko Ono, Lennon's widow, were notified of the sale but did not bid themselves. Ten years later, Jackson merged his catalogue with that of Sony Corporation of America to form Sony/ATV Music Publishing, and Northern Songs was dissolved.