Stairway to the Bank
The most profitable song of all time, according to calculations by Portfolio magazine, is Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.” Released in 1971, it’s been on the radio an estimated 2,985,000 times, equal to about forty-five years of uninterrupted airtime. With public-performance fees, album and DVD sales, sheet-music sales, and royalties from other artists’ covers, it has generated an estimated $562 million. Songwriters Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, however, are notoriously protective about their work, usually refusing to license their songs for use in television and movies. Only since 2002 have they allowed selected songs to appear in commercials and made their albums available on iTunes. If the band took advantage of the song’s full licensing potential, the total profits could be millions more.
The music business is notoriously convoluted and litigious, threatening to sue just about anybody and everybody when there’s cash to be made. Few people realize just how little money their favorite artists make off their own music, and the industry is only more paranoid and controlling now that digital piracy is rampant. The next time you hear your favorite song on the radio or in a commercial, think of all the people who are making money off the artist’s work. And next time you sing “Happy Birthday” in a restaurant, make sure to lower your voice.
