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Yes, the “Happy Birthday” song has been around for a while. And yes, until very recently, if you wanted to sing it and play the music for a commercial purpose you had to pay $$ for the privilege. Warner/Chappell music was raking in the dough for that ubiquitous song for decades, until now. In a stunning upset of a well-heeled copyright licensing and enforcement program, a judge recently ruled that the company and its predecessors never had the right to charge fees for the use of that song.
Join Jennifer Atkins and Antigone Peyton in this podcast as they explore this interesting music case, the history of the song, and all of the fascinating (but quirky) copyright issues the court considered as it decided who (didn’t) own the lyrics to this famous song.