Warner Chappell Music

Warner Chappell Music, Inc. is an American music publishing company and a division of the Warner Music Group.

Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
IndustryMusic industry
PredecessorChappell & Co.
Founded1811
Headquarters
New York City, New York
,
United States
Area served
Worldwide
ServicesMusic publishing
ParentWarner Music Group
DivisionsWarner Chappell Production Music
Websitewww.warnerchappell.com

Warner Chappell Music's catalogue consists of over one million compositions and 65,000 composers, with offices in over 40 countries.[1]

History

The company traces its origins back to 1811 and the founding of Chappell & Company, a British music publishing company and instrument shop that specialized in piano manufacturing on London's Bond Street.[2] In 1929, Warner Bros. acquired M. Witmark & Sons, Remick Music Corporation and Harms, Inc.[3] Tamerlane Music was acquired in 1969.[4]

Warner Chappell Music was formed in 1987 in San Antonio, Texas, when Warner Bros. Music Chairman Chuck Kaye led the company to purchase Chappell & Co. from PolyGram.[5] In 1988, Warner-Chappell acquired Birch Tree Group, publisher of Happy Birthday to You and the Frances Clark piano method books.[6][7]

In 1994, Warner Bros. Publications expanded its print music operations by acquiring CPP/Belwin. CPP/Belwin had been the former print music arm of Columbia Pictures.[8]

In 2005, Warner Chappell Music sold most of its printed music division, Warner Bros. Publications, to Alfred Publishing,[9] and in 2006 launched the Pan European Digital Licensing (P.E.D.L.) initiative. In 2007, when Radiohead released In Rainbows through its website on a pay-what-you-wish model, Warner Chappell Music created a streamlined, one-of-a-kind licensing process for the songs on the album[10] that allowed rights users around the world to secure use of the music from a single location.[11]

In 2007, the company acquired Non-Stop Music.[12] Additionally, in 2010 it acquired 615 Music, a Nashville-based production music company,[13] and subsequently united all the production music companies under the name Warner Chappell Production Music in 2012.[14] In 2011, it acquired Southside Independent Music Publishing, whose songwriters included Bruno Mars, Brody Brown, and J.R. Rotem.[15]

It was ranked in 2010 by Music & Copyright as the world's third-largest music publisher.[16] Among the songs in the company's library are "Winter Wonderland" and formerly "Happy Birthday to You" until the copyright of the song was invalidated in 2015 and put in the public domain the next year.[17]

On June 30, 2017, Warner Chappell Music filed a lawsuit against EMI Music Publishing, accusing the latter company of underpaying Warner Music for the royalties of the 20th Century Fox catalogue, which Warner acquired in 1982, as well as the rights to Curtis Mayfield and Kool and the Gang. This controversy arises from EMI's acquisition of Robbins and Feist in the early 1990s.[18]

On January 15, 2019, Warner Chappell Music filed a monetization claim against a fanfilm created by Star Wars YouTube channel Star Wars Theory, but rescinded the claim two days later after intervention by Lucasfilm Ltd. on behalf of outraged fans.[19][20] In May 2019, Warner Chappell Music was again criticized for filing overly broad copyright claims, concerning a large number of YouTube videos by Minecraft Youtuber Mumbo Jumbo, who has almost 6 million subscribers, for the sole reason that the intro song on all of them contained samples of a song that was copyrighted by Warner Chappell Music. The Youtuber had paid for a license to use the song, but it turned out that the samples had not been cleared. He stated that he intended to dispute Warner Chappell Music's claims, but that their large number (around 1800) would make this burdensome.[21]

In May 2019, Warner Chappell acquired the Gene Autry Music Group, comprising four music publishers, 1,500 compositions, and several of Autry's master recordings.[22]

gollark: The "summon large amounts of bees riding sheep" bit is easy enough, but it's feeding into a "disapionator" outside the big triangular base there, and someone somehow rigged it to draw in bees, kill them when they get near a central thing, and produce cool particle effects while doing so.
gollark: No, that was earlier.
gollark: Technically, they're already self-replicating. The bot production machinery uses bots.
gollark: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
gollark: Bot swarms swarming botishly.

See also

References
  1. "Warner/Chappell Music - HISTORY". Warnerchappell.com. Retrieved 2014-03-11.
  2. Tim Arango. "Scratching Under the Vinyl Era". The New York Times. Retrieved 2014-03-11.
  3. Spring, Katherine (2013-11-01). Saying It With Songs: Popular Music and the Coming of Sound to Hollywood Cinema. OUP USA. ISBN 9780199842223.
  4. "Warner Chappell Music, Inc". www.fairness.com. Retrieved 2016-05-08.
  5. "Warner Music Group | Timeline". Wmg.com. Retrieved 2014-03-11.
  6. "'Happy Birthday' song to be sold to Warner Communications". UPI. Retrieved 2020-01-01.
  7. Press, The Associated (1989-12-26). "'Happy Birthday' and the Money It Makes". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-01-01.
  8. Writer, JAY WEAVER Business (1994-10-05). "MELODIC MERGER PRINT MUSIC DIVISIONS UNITE TO FORM WORLD'S BIGGEST PUBLISHING OPERATION.: [ALL Edition]". Sun Sentinel; Fort Lauderdale. Fort Lauderdale, United States, Fort Lauderdale. pp. 1–. ProQuest 388726870.
  9. "Annual Report for the period ending September 30, 2006". Sec.gov. Retrieved 2014-03-11.
  10. "Investor Center - News and Advice from DailyFinance". Bloggingstocks.com. Retrieved 2014-03-11.
  11. "Music Week". Music Week. Retrieved 2014-03-11.
  12. "Warner Music Group - Investor Relations - News Release". Investors.wmg.com. 2007-08-06. Retrieved 2014-03-11.
  13. "Warner/Chappell Music Acquires Renowned Production Music Company 615 Music". Studio Daily. 2010-12-10. Retrieved 2014-03-11.
  14. "Warner/Chappel Unites Production Companies, Launches New Website". Billboard. 2012-04-05. Retrieved 2014-03-11.
  15. "Warner Music Group | News". Wmg.com. Retrieved 2014-03-11.
  16. Music & Copyright, April 21, 2010
  17. "'Happy Birthday' copyright invalidated by judge". New York Times. 2015-09-22. Retrieved 2015-09-23.
  18. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/amp/thr-esq/warner-chappell-says-emi-is-underpaying-royalties-new-lawsuit-1018382
  19. https://www.newsweek.com/star-wars-theory-disney-youtube-claim-copyright-reddit-1293172/
  20. https://movieweb.com/star-wars-boycott-lucasfilm-returns-darth-vader-fan-film/
  21. Doctorow, Cory. "How Warner Chappell was able to steal revenues from 25% of a popular Minecraft vlogger's channels". Boing Boing. Retrieved 2019-06-06.
  22. https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/8513827/warner-chappell-acquires-gene-autry-music-group
Archives at
LocationLibrary of Congress
SourceWarner/Chappell collection, 1920-1959
Using archival material
Help:Archival material
Finding aids
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