A viral video for the children's song "Baby Shark" by Pinkfong has made a ton of money for the company SmartStudy, especially when you combine the revenues from the various versions of the video, a TV series, and all the merchandising associated with it. But who wrote the song? While making some efforts to enforce copyright, SmartStudy claims the song itself is in the public domain because it originated in the early 1900s. Today I Found Out combed the records, and pinpointed the origin of the song closer to 1975.
So next time you’re sitting in your car in traffic going to your dead-end job that you loath, just remember, there is a company out there who has literally made at minimum tens of millions of dollars already off a song they plucked from, allegedly, the public domain, modifying it only slightly from an existing version, claimed the copyright on that version based on those tiny modifications, did a few minutes of recording, presumably a day or two of video editing, uploaded it on the interwebs, and now will be cashing checks for it for the rest of their lives, as well as their kid’s lives and beyond.
While the actual person who wrote "Baby Shark" is still mystery, its origin story may be surprising to you. You can read what's been uncovered at Today I Found Out.