LONDON — Jeff Jones will step down as the CEO of The Beatles’ Apple Corps Ltd after 17 years in the role, the company has announced (Oct. 21).
Apple Corps Ltd was founded in 1968 by the Fab Four to control the band’s interests across music, film, publishing and more. The role of CEO was previously held by the band’s longtime publicist Neil Aspinall from 1968 to 2007.
Jones joined the team in 2007 following a role as an executive vice president at Sony/BMG, with a history repackaging classic catalogs from artists like Miles Davis.
During his time as CEO of Apple Corps, Jones led several projects for the company including the launch of the band’s website and spearheaded the move to make The Beatles’ music available digitally on iTunes in 2010.
He also worked with video game producers Harmonix to launch The Beatles’ Rock Band game and the company’s 18-year partnership with Cirque Du Soleil for the The Beatles: Love stage show which ended in July 2024.
Jones acted as an executive producer on several filmed projects, such as Ron Howard’s documentary The Beatles: Eight Days A Week – The Touring Years and Peter Jackson’s three-part Get Back series, released in 2021 on Disney+.
His work included the remastering and repackaging of several of the band’s iconic albums including The White Album, and in 2012 was part of the decision to license Revolver track “Tomorrow Never Knows” to appear in AMC show Mad Men. This was the first time any of their tracks had been licensed to an American television show and reportedly cost the producers around $250,000, five times the typical cost.
Jones’ most recent projects included the release of The Beatles’ final song “Now and Then” in 2023, which was aided with the help of machine-assisted learning. He serves as an executive producer on the upcoming Beatles ’64 documentary, produced by Martin Scorsese and directed by David Tedeschi, set to be released in November.
A statement from Apple Corps Ltd reads: “The whole Apple Corps family wishes Jeff Jones all the very best and would like to express our sincere gratitude for his invaluable contributions to the company and the legacy of The Beatles.”