Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 27 views

    Christmas Songs in The Public Domain

    Uploaded by

    susan. ousins

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Christmas Songs in The Public Domain

    Uploaded by

    susan. ousins
    27 views4 pages

    Original Title

    Christmas_Songs_in_the_Public_Domain

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    27 views4 pages

    Christmas Songs in The Public Domain

    Uploaded by

    susan. ousins

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 4

    C D B A B Y P R E S E N T S:

    Christmas Songs in the Public Domain


    (and those that aren’t)
    Christmas Songs in the Public Domain
    (and those that aren’t)

    The Holiday Season — a time for family, tradition, peace on earth,


    and ridiculously ballooning music sales figures.
    Yep, that’s right. Between October and December, millions of people are searching for new holiday
    songs — and they could be purchasing YOUR music!

    Recording a few holiday tunes is one of the best ways to connect with new listeners who might not
    have otherwise heard your music. But before you choose which Christmas, Chanukah, Solstice,
    Kwanzaa, Festivus, and New Years songs you’re going to tackle, you should know ahead of time
    whether or not you need to pay a publisher/songwriter for the right to record their composition.

    To make things a little simpler for you, CD Baby has created these two handy lists of popular
    holiday tunes:

    Popular holiday songs in the Public Domain


    Angels We Have Heard On High Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring
    Auld Lang Syne Jingle Bells
    Away In A Manger Jolly Old St. Nicholas
    Coventry Carol Joy To The World
    Deck The Halls O Come All Ye Faithful
    For Unto Us O Come O Come Emmanuel
    Go Tell It On The Mountain O Holy Night
    God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen O Little Town Of Bethlehem
    Good King Wenceslas Once In Royal David’s City
    Hallelujah Chorus Silent Night
    Hark! The Herald Angels Sing The First Noel
    Here We Come A-Caroling (Wassail Song) The Twelve Days of Christmas
    I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day Up On The Housetop
    I Saw Three Ships We Three Kings
    In The Bleak Midwinter We Wish You A Merry Christmas
    It Came Upon The Midnight Clear What Child Is This

    2 CHRISTMAS SONGS IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN


    Popular Holiday Songs That Are NOT in the Public Domain
    Believe it or not, these songs (as old and ubiquitous as some of them are) have not yet passed into the
    Public Domain. The rights for these compositions are still administered by publishers, and a mechan-
    ical royalty would need to be paid in order to record and release cover versions of these songs.

    “A Holly Jolly Christmas” “Jingle Bell Rock”


    by Johnny Marks by Joseph Carleton Beal and James Ross Boothe

    “All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth” “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!”
    by Donald Yetter Gardner by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne

    “Carol Of The Bells” * “Little Drummer Boy”


    by Peter J. Wilhousky and Mykola Leontovich by Katherine K. Davis, Henry V. Onorati, and Harry
    *The lyrics and title of Carol of the Bells are copyrighted. Simeone
    The music, a Ukrainian folk song called “Shchedryk,”
    is in the public domain. In order to avoid paying a “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree”
    mechanical royalty, your recording would need to be an
    by Johnny Marks
    instrumental version of the composition, and you could
    NOT call it “Carol of the Bells.”
    “Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer”
    “Do You Hear What I Hear?” by Johnny Marks
    by Noel Regney and Gloria Shayne Baker
    “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town”
    “Feliz Navidad” by Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie
    by Jose Feliciano
    “Silver Bells”
    “Frosty The Snowman” by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans
    by Steve Nelson and Walter E. Rollins
    “Sleigh Ride”
    “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” by Leroy Anderson and Mitchell Parish
    by Ralph Blane and Hugh Martin
    “The Christmas Song
    “Here Comes Santa Claus (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire)”
    (Right Down Santa Claus Lane)” by Mel Tormé and Robert Wells
    by Gene Autry and Oakley Haldeman
    “White Christmas”
    “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” by Irving Berlin
    by Walter Kent, Kim Gannon, and Buck Ram
    “Winter Wonderland”
    “It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year” by Felix Bernard and Richard B. Smith
    by Edward Pola and George Wyle

    3 CHRISTMAS SONGS IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN


    Want to cover one of these copyrighted songs? You can easily obtain the required mechanical license for
    your holiday single from CD Baby.

    Please note: This information is correct to the best of our knowledge, but you are ultimately respon-
    sible for securing the rights for any copyrighted material you cover. In other words — this isn’t legal
    advice, so make sure you do your homework before selling songs you didn’t write.

    Sources:
    http://www.pdinfo.com/
    http://www.copyrightsolver.com/

    About CD Baby:
    CD Baby, the world’s largest digital distributor of independent music, is a company run BY
    musicians FOR musicians. We’ve paid out hundreds of millions of dollars to DIY artists all over the
    world. From our humble beginnings in 1998 as a small, one-man operation in a garage, to our
    current standing as one of the most trusted names in independent music, we’ve developed a host of
    services to help artists, including physical and digital music distribution, warehousing and shipping
    of CDs and vinyl, YouTube monetization, worldwide publishing administration, and more.

    Become a CD Baby artist today!

    4 CHRISTMAS SONGS IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN

    You might also like