Ariana Grande’s song “7 Rings” was a huge hit that made a lot of money but it could have been a lot more rewarding for the singer.
In the modern music landscape, there are only a handful of artists that have risen to the level that Ariana Grande has. A pop star of the highest caliber, Grande can rest assured that her music is certain to be remembered many, many years after she releases her last song.
Fortunately for Grande, her immense popularity has made her career extremely financially rewarding, to say the least. After all, on top of getting paid for the things that all successful musical artists make money from, Grande also notably makes a staggering amount of money from posting sponsored posts on Instagram.
Thanks to the impressive fortune that Grande has accumulated from her career, it is obvious that she isn’t in need financially. Still, it is pretty mind-blowing to learn how much money Grande missed out on from her song “7 Rings” and why that is.
Why Did Ariana Grande Lose So Much Money From “7 Rings”?
During Ariana Grande’s incredible career, she has released several songs that became huge hits with audiences. Some examples of Grande’s most popular songs include “Save Your Tears”, “Die For You”, “Bang Bang”, “Thanks U, Next”, “Positions”, “34+35”, and “No Tears Left To Cry”.
While all of those songs were major hits, it could be argued that “7 Rings” is her biggest song to date. After all, “7 Rings” was the number-one song on the charts for eight different weeks and none of her other tracks reigned supreme for that long.
Whether “7 Rings” is Grande’s biggest hit or one of her most successful songs, the fact remains that it was a major success for everyone involved.
Lyrically speaking, Grande revealed the incredible backstory behind “7 Rings” monster success during a 2018 Billboard interview.
According to what Grande told Billboard, she once was at a Tiffany’s event where she enjoyed a lot of champagne. While she was under the influence of those drinks, Grande spent a lot of money to buy 7 engagement rings.
Since most people only buy engagement rings when they intend to get married, the obvious question is why Grande bought so many at once. As it turns out, Grande decided to purchase a ring for herself and six of her friends, Victoria Monét, Courtney Chipolone, Alexa Luria, Tayla Parx, Njomza, and Kaydence.
If most people woke up after a night of partying to realize they made a major purchase, they would be filled with regret. Since Grande isn’t an average person by any means, she decided to release a song celebrating her ability to buy whatever she wants.
For “7 Rings” to become a hit, the song needed more than just catchy lyrics and a fascinating backstory. Instead, the song also needed to have a beat that listeners couldn’t get enough of.
To make that happen, the decision was made to sample one of the most famous songs of all time, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “My Favorite Things”. Already beloved by a lot of people, “My Favorite Things” appeared in the movie The Sound of Music.
As anyone with even a passing knowledge of modern music will already know, sampling other songs is extremely common practice these days. Depending on how famous the song that is being sampled is, clearing the rights to use part of a song can be a long and costly process.
Even though sampling a song can be expensive, the story of how Grande used a portion of “My Favorite Things” is still mind-blowing, to say the least. According to the New York Times, Grande’s camp agreed to give up a staggering amount of money to clear the rights to sample “My Favorite Things”.
As it turns out, the deal to allow “7 Rings” to include a sample from “My Favorite Things” was only finalized “a few weeks before the song’s release in January, when representatives for Ms. Grande and her label, Republic, brought the completed song to Concord, the music company that has owned the Rodgers and Hammerstein catalog since 2017.”
After Grande’s camp asked Concord for permission to sample “My Favorite Things”, they quickly agreed to a surprising deal. “Concord requested 90 percent of Ms. Grande’s song, and her representatives accepted without further negotiation.”
Why Ariana Grande’s “7 Rings” Royalty Deal Is Controversial
Ever since sampling songs became a major part of the music business, it has become clear that simply taking bits from different songs and shoving them together is a recipe for failure. Instead, it takes a true artist to know how to expertly use bits from previous songs to make a new track that listeners will adore.
As important as it is to give talented producers and performers respect for the way they sample songs, many people point to songs like Ariana Grande’s “7 Rings” as an example of what is wrong with modern music.
When “7 Rings” was released, it didn’t take too long for people to realize that Grade, Rodgers, and Hammerstein aren’t the only people credited with writing the song. Instead, “7 Rings” actually has a total of ten different credited songwriters.
For most of history, songs typically were written by a single artist, or they were put together by the members of a band. These days, however, songs like “7 Rings” often appear to be written by committee which many people think is destroying the integrity of today’s music.
Since many music fans are annoyed that there are so many chefs in the kitchen when today’s songs are written, some of them took exception to Grande’s “7 Rings” royalty deal. The reason for that is they saw Grande’s willingness to give up 90% of the song’s royalties as proof that most modern songs can’t be produced without relying on other artists.
