Copyright is valuable – ‘The Birthday Song’ earns $2 Million a year in royalties 1

Would you have guessed that the song, ‘Happy Birthday to You’ generates an estimated $2 million dollars a year in royalties?  (and has earned this much annually since 1996)  It’s only eight measures long, spans an octave and was written for children …but it’s a big money maker.

The song has appeared in over 140 movies, in countless advertisements for products ranging from cars to cereals to insurance to paper products and pet stores… and was featured in the world’s first singing telegram in 1933.   Royalties are earned for public performances of the song as well as its use in movies, television shows, advertisements, music boxes, theatrical productions and the like.  (Just an fyi… singing it around the dinner table or serenading your friend is a royalty-free private performance.)

‘Happy Birthday to You’ was written by two sisters… one was an educator and the other a composer.  They were knowledgeable about copyright law and took steps to register their work for copyright protection.  They may not have guessed that their song would become one of the most popular songs in the 20^th Century…. earning over an estimated $45 million dollars to date.  (Spending $35 to register your music for copyright protection pays off –> http://t.co/ynaHCbX )

(Since this blog just celebrated its first birthday… this is a timely topic.)

BY: Vanessa Kaster, Esq. LL.M.

vk@kasterlegal.com

An interesting reference for more on the copyright issues surrounding the Happy Birthday song, see Professor Brauneis’ legal paper http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1111624

Licensing a Cover Song: simple music copyright licensing Reply

Securing a license to include a song that you cover (ie a song written by someone else that you record) on your CD is simple and more affordable than you might guess.  For example, if you have recorded a Bruce Springsteen song that you want to include on your ‘soon to be released album’ then you need to secure a license to use the song.  Clearing cover songs has become simple with online licensing and royalty service providers like RightsFlow.

RightsFlow offers an easy online service for licensing cover songs for use on physical CD’s, ringtones, digital downloads and interactive streaming.  So back to the Bruce Springsteen example, the price for licensing a Bruce Springsteen song for use on 500 CD’s and 500 digital downloads is less than $150.00.  If you are selling your CD’s for $10 and giving the digital downloads away for free on your band website… you only have to sell 15 CD’s before you have recovered the licensing costs.  (this is peanuts compared with possible fines and litigation that can be brought on by illegitimate use of a Springsteen song.)

Check out RightsFlow for simple music copyright licensing  –>  http://rightsflow.com/

Note, that RightsFlow offers discounts to ASCAP members.

For more information: @iplegalfreebies and www.kasterlegal.com.

BY: Vanessa Kaster, Esq., LL.M.

vk@kasterlegal.com