Background Chappell & Co., was a British music publishing company and instrument shop founded in 1811 in
Bond Street,
London, that specialised in piano manufacturing. In 1929,
Warner Bros. Pictures acquired
M. Witmark & Sons,
Remick Music Corporation and
Harms, Inc. Tamerlane Music (affiliated with
Valiant Records) was acquired in 1969.
Merge Warner Chappell Music was formed in
San Antonio, Texas, in 1987, when
Warner Music Group Chairman
Chuck Kaye led the company to purchase Chappell & Co. from
PolyGram (now Universal Music Group) (UMG). In 1988, Warner-Chappell acquired Birch Tree Group (formerly Summy-Birchard), publisher of
Happy Birthday to You, the
Frances Clark piano method books, and former publisher of the
Musical Courier. In 1990, Warner Chappell acquired Mighty Three Music, the publishing company of
Thom Bell and
Gamble and Huff. The same year, Warner Chappell acquired the Canadian music publisher
Gordon V. Thompson Music. 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.
2000s In 2005, Warner Chappell Music sold most of its printed music division, Warner Bros. Publications, to
Alfred Publishing. In 2006 it 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 that allowed rights users around the world to secure use of the music from a single location. In 2006, David H. Johnson was elevated to interim CEO and then in 2007 to Chairman & CEO of the company. In November 2006,
Disney Music Publishing and Warner Chappell agreed to a licensing agreement for Europe and South America major markets. In 2007, the company acquired Non-Stop Music. Additionally, in 2010 it acquired
615 Music, a Nashville-based production music company, and subsequently united all the production music companies under the name Warner Chappell Production Music in 2012. In 2011, it acquired Southside Independent Music Publishing, whose songwriters included
Bruno Mars, Brody Brown, and J.R. Rotem. In July 2012, Warner/Chappell purchased the music rights of the film studio
Miramax Films.
2010s It was ranked in 2010 by
Music & Copyright as the world's third-largest music publisher. 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 into public domain the next year. In January 2011, Cameron Strang, founder of
New West Records and Southside Independent Music Publishing, was named CEO of Warner Chappell Music. He was succeeded by former company president
Jon Platt in 2016. Warner Chappell acquired
Frank Gari's studio in 2015, adding to its production music library some of the most well-known
television news music themes including those for local stations
owned by
ABC,
CBS, and
NBC. 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. On January 9, 2019, Guy Moot was named CEO of Warner Chappell Music. He and
Carianne Marshall, the company's COO, were appointed co-chairs. On January 15, 2019, Warner Chappell Music filed a monetization claim against a fan film 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. 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 more than 9 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. In May 2019, Warner Chappell acquired the
Gene Autry Music Group, comprising four music publishers, 1,500 compositions (including "
Back in the Saddle Again", "
Here Comes Santa Claus", "
Just Walkin' in the Rain", and "
You Belong To Me"), and several of Autry's master recordings.
2020s In July 2021, Warner Chappell opened its first office in Vietnam. On January 3, 2022,
Variety reported that the estate of English musician
David Bowie had sold the late artist's publishing catalog to Warner Chappell Music, "for a price upwards of $250 million". On January 20, 2022, Warner Chappell signed a worldwide publishing agreement with
ABS-CBN Music, the umbrella organization that houses the record label
Star Music and its sub-labels, StarPop, Tarsier Records, DNA Music, and Old School Records. One of the biggest music producers in the Philippines, it has the largest catalogue of
OPM music, including the international hits such as "Anak" by
Freddie Aguilar and "Pangako Sa'yo" by
Vina Morales. In November 2023, it was announced that Warner Chappell had signed British singer songwriter
Dido to distribute her discography catalogue and future music releases. ==References==