The late duo responsible for \u2019The Sound of Music\u2019 will reap 90 percent of the song\u2019s royalties.<\/b>
\nAriana Grande\u2018s single \u201c7 Rings\u201d is on pace to become one of the highest-performing hits of her young career. On Monday, the song reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for the sixth time, beating out Post Malone and Swae Lee\u2019s \u201cSunflower\u201d and Halsey\u2019s \u201cWithout Me.\u201d As of Tuesday, the song has been streamed more than a billion times. Yet while Grande is certainly making a good chunk of cash off of the record, the vast majority of the songwriting royalties are being collected by two men who have each been dead for more than 40 years.
\u201c7 Rings\u201d is considered, by some, to be an extended interpretation of \u201cMy Favorite Things,\u201d the song from the 1959 Rodgers and Hammerstein hit musical The Sound of Music, a version of which was later famously performed by Julie Andrews in the film 1965 film adaption. Grande, of course, puts a 2019 spin on the song, swapping lyrics like \u201craindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens\u201d for \u201cBreakfast at Tiffany\u2019s and bottles of bubbles.\u201d
There are 10 songwriters credited on the Thank U, Next single. Two of them \u2014 Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II \u2014 control 90 percent of the songwriting royalties. According to the New York Times, Grande and her team worked out a deal with Concord Music (the company that has controlled the Rodgers and Hammerstein catalog for the last two years) just a few weeks before the song was released in January. Concord is expected to make millions off the song, while Grande and the other songwriters will only make a fraction of the remaining 10 percent.
Considering the level of success her other work has had, one can only assume Grande isn\u2019t too stressed about the situation. On Monday, the 25-year-old kicked off the first leg her Sweetener Tour in Albany, New York with a special tribute to her late ex Mac Miller.
(Via New York Times)<\/p>\n