Pages

Feb 21, 2013

This Is Officially the Best Copyright-Free Way to Sing Happy Birthday


You might not know it, but the melody from Happy Birthday To You is actually copyrighted, owned by Time Warner, and won't enter the public domain until 2030 at the earliest. That's why the Free Music Archive set out to find an alternative—and this is officially the best choice.

Along with WFMU, the Free Music Archive launched a competition back in January to find a new copyright-free and free-to-use celebratory birthday song. The winner, It's your Birthday!by Monk Turner and Fascinoma, features in this video. It was chosen by a panel of judges including Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig and Yo La Tengo's Ira Kaplan.

Why bother? Well, the fact it's copyrighted strictly means that Time Warner can cream royalty fees off anyone who chooses to use it. Allegedly, the company makes a cool $2 million from licensing the tune out for use in films, TV shows and advertisements. If you don't like that fact, start using this song instead!

2 comments:

Outcast said...

This is so close to the original and it's pretty jazzy too haha, thanks for sharing this man.

alex xander said...

Hi everybody
Today I will introduce to everyone my favorite ringtone collection. Ringtones fun. Rock ringtones. Ringtones edm. Iphone ringtone. There are many attractive ringtones waiting for you. Visit my homepage to find and reference more interesting tunes here: ringtone download

Here are some examples of ring tones that you can reference and install:

- Tera Ghata ringtone
- Bhagwa Rang ringtone
- Jab Bhi Teri Yaad Aayegi ringtone
- Magenta Riddim ringtone
- Laung Laachi ringtone

I need your opinion. I hope my collection will get you the best ringtone on your mobile. thank you