A New Find Could Push The "Happy Birthday" Song Into The Public Domain

If you ever wondered why the "Happy Birthday To You" song that you grew up with is often replaced with some lame version in restaurants, television and movies, it's because the song isn't in the public domain. Its copyright is owned by Warner/Chappell Music, which collects about $2 million a year in royalties from its use.

There have been numerous lawsuits over the years claiming that Warner/Chappell didn't actually own the copyright, but all were defeated. But some new recently discovered evidence might turn the tide the other way and return the song to the public domain.

 A librarian at the University of Louisville found the only known copy of "Good Morning To All," the song written by Louisville natives Mildred and Patty Hill and published in a children's book in 1893. The manuscript for the book was donated to the library in the 1950s but not cataloged.

Warner/Chappell acquired what it believed to be the copyright of "Happy Birthday To You" when it acquired the Clayton F. Summy Company in 1935. The company has aggressively defended its ownership of the song's copyright ever since.

A class action suit by a group of filmmakers, artists and musicians filed in 2013 claims that the song has been in the public domain all the while, and has asked that all the royalties collected by Warner/Chappell be returned. The new find in the Louisville library should add some weight to their claim.

It would be nice to have "Happy Birthday" back in the public domain, if for no other reason than to prevent hearing those bad substitutions ever again.

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The "Happy Birthday" Song Could Cost Publisher Millions

If you ever went to a chain restaurant and heard the wait staff sing a lame birthday song instead of the real thing, that's because the parent company didn't want to pay the high licensing fee connected with the singing of the "Happy Birthday To You" that we all know and love.

For 120 years Warner/Chappell Publishing has been demanding payment for the use of the song "Happy Birthday," but a new documentary and lawsuit provides some strong evidence that the song has actually been in the public domain all this time. Such a ruling would mean that Warner/Chappell would be forced to not only forfeit the high licensing fees it now receives from it, but also potentially have to return hundreds of millions of dollars as well.

During the making of a documentary on the song, researchers have uncovered evidence that the song has actually been in the public domain at least since 1920, a claim that many copyright scholars have maintained for years.

"Happy Birthday To You" actually started its life as "Good Morning To All" which was published in 1883. The "happy birthday" lyrics appeared in 1901 with a note that the song was sung to the melody of "Good Morning To You" in an edition of the Inland Educator and Indiana School Journal. This was reiterated in a book in 1907, then published with notation in 1911. There were a variety of copyright claims since, but virtually all were held to be invalid or expired.

It seems that Warner/Chappell might hold a copyright on the original song (might being the operative word here), but not on "Happy Birthday To You," although the company has claimed copyright of the song even though the original copyright has long since run out. Now that a suit has been filed, it should be very interesting to see how the company responds.

While it won't shake anyone's world to have "Happy Birthday" back in the public domain, at least it will get rid of the substandard efforts to take its place in restaurants everywhere. You can read more detail, and see the complaint document here.

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Major Warner Reshuffling Actually Makes Sense

It was reported last week that Warner Music Group was restructuring following the departure of their former music chief Lyor Cohen. Usually these types of reorganizations are more about consolidating power into new fiefdoms for the remaining or incoming executives, but this one actually seems to make sense.

According to an article in CMU:

Under the new structure, Warner in the US will have three divisions, frontline recorded music, publishing and catalogue, and label and artist services. The first division will consist of Warner’s record labels, principally Atlantic, Warner Bros and Warner Nashville, and will handle current talent and new releases. The second division will replace the Warner/Chappell publishing company, and also include catalogue marketing and the major’s catalogue label Rhino. The third division will bring together distribution operations and those Warner units working outside records and publishing. 

The second of the new divisions is the most interesting, with the major allying the marketing of its sound recording catalogue with its music publishing operations. 

A couple of things here are interesting. First is that Warner/Chappell is being replaced, which is hard to believe, since it's such a powerhouse brand. OK, brand aside, the fact that they're now combining publishing with catalog is huge, since they're now thinking more in terms of licensing, rather than sales. Licensing can be a much more profitable way to do business, since the overhead is far lower and manufacturing costs are essentially nil because the licensor does it all.

Many have predicted that this would be the business model for the next generation major label. Now it seems that we'll get to see the prototype in action and can evaluate whether those predictions are really valid.

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