A member of the rock band that made Apple what it is today will play for employees this week (Update)

UPDATE: It is now official. Sir Paul McCartney, the legendary Beatles bassist will be entertaining Apple employees at Apple Park tonight. Apple is celebrating its 50th anniversary today and McCartney was spotted rehearsing at Apple Park yesterday. As the original story below notes, The Beatles were not only Steve Jobs‘ favorite band, the group also played a major role in how Apple was created.

The original story follows:

Tweet hints that Paul McCartney will perform this week for Apple employees

This makes sense since the Beatles’ left-handed bassist, 83 years young, just wrapped up his latest world tour with a couple of shows in Los Angeles. Paul is expected to go back on the road for a European tour later this year. 

Apple Computer and Apple Corps ended up in a legal battle

Here’s an interesting story related to the Apple Computer v. Apple Corps legal battle. Apple Corps sued Apple for failing to live up to the aforementioned settlement preventing the tech firm from entering the music business. The Beatles’ company claimed that Apple’s addition of MIDI and audio features for the Mac was putting Apple into the music business, which was a violation of the settlement made by both companies.

Apple sound designer Jim Reekes was given the job of creating a xylophone alert sound for the Mac. He wanted to call it “Let it Beep,” which would have been a witty shot at the Beatle tune and album “Let it Be.” Apple Computer attorneys didn’t like that idea, so Reekes named the alert sound Sosumi, as in “So, sue me,” in an effort to make fun of the lawyers working for Apple Corps. In 2020 macOS Big Sur, the alert was renamed Sonumi. Mac users can select the Sonumi alert by going to System Settings > Sound and selecting Sonumi from the list of Alert Sounds.

Steve Jobs also was a big fan of other 60’s icons like Bob Dylan. The latter’s “Like a Rolling Stone” was one of the songs that Jobs played on the OG iPhone when he unveiled the device on that world-changing day in January 2007.

How much could McCartney get paid for this performance?

Wouldn’t it be cool if McCartney referenced the unveiling of the iPhone 19 years ago by kicking off the celebration by playing “Sgt. Pepper” as his first song. As we said, only Apple employees will be able to witness the event. The Apple Park Visitor Center is planning to shut early on Tuesday, March 31st to prepare for the celebration.

If McCartney is playing to Apple employees next week, how much would the tech giant have to pay to have one of the world’s living rock gods perform at Apple Park? According to online estimates, Apple will have to pay anywhere in the range between $5 and $10 million. That’s a far cry from the estimated $160,000 that The Beatles are believed to have received as their share of the 1965 Shea Stadium concert.

Jobs not only was a huge Beatles fan, he claimed to have used them to come up with the model of business he favored for Apple. He called them four very talented guys who kept each of their individual negative tendencies in check. He added that they balanced each other and the whole was greater than the sum of their parts.