All the news in the music industry, in recent years, has been about the decline in revenues as digital downloads and piracy cut into royalties. However, one segment of the industry is thriving, licensing the right to music for use in movies, television, and advertising. These right have the potential to bring in millions per year, especially when the song is instantly recognizable in certain genres such as holiday music or love songs. White Christmas, released over 50 years ago, brings in over $30 million per year while the ubiquitous Happy Birthday generates over $1 million per year in revenue. This is all because copyrights, at least in the United States and U.K., stay in force for decades after the death of the composer and has created a brisk trade in these rights by everyone from hedge funds to pension plans. Combined with relentless lobbying by the music industry to revoke the public’s right to enjoy old works of art, these songs are likely to continue to generate massive amounts of money for the foreseeable future.
See Nick Clark, White Christmas will cost you a lot more than £10m, proving the lucrative after-life of popular classics, The Independent, August 7, 2015.
Special thanks to Joel C. Dobris for bringing this article to my attention.
