The story of ‘Uptown Funk’, Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars’ inescapable 2014 single, which spent weeks at the tops of charts around the world and propelled Ronson’s fourth studio album, Uptown Special, into a #5 Billboard chart position, is a long and complicated one.
As Tone Deaf reported earlier this year, the song had five additional authors tacked onto its writing credits back in May, giving the song a total of 11 writers. While it was initially credited to six, the publisher of The Gap Band lodged a claim, alleging Ronson and co had stolen the band’s 1979 hit ‘Oops Upside Your Head’.
The Gap Band members Ronnie Wilson, Charles Wilson, and Robert Wilson, plus producers Rudolph Taylor and Lonnie Simmons now share credit with Ronson, Mars, whose vocals appear on the tune, producers Jeff Bhasker and Philip Lawrence, Trinidad James, who’s sampled on the track, and Devon Gallaspy.
James and Gallaspy received their credits for the use of a sample of Williams’ 2012 single ‘All Gold Everything’, which lent the song its famous “Don’t believe me, just watch” chant, while The Gap Band received their share because the song’s “Uptown funk you up!” refrain was inspired by ‘Oops Up Side Your Head’.
So who gets what when you have 11 writers on a hit song? According to Billboard, downloads of ‘Uptown Funk’ hit sales of 5.5 million units in the US alone, while Ronson’s album scanned 95,000 units, according to Nielsen Music. This amounts to about $510,000 in US mechanical publishing royalties (at $0.091 per song).
Meanwhile, YouTube uploads which feature the master of ‘Uptown Funk’ and have generated at least 10 million views (there’s about five, amounting to 672,617,094 views total) could stand to generate $2.201 million, depending on monetisation and not including user-generated videos.
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Overall, Billboard estimates the song has earned $2.7 million in publishing royalties, not including TV and film synch revenues, $1.9 million of which has gone to the writers based on their respective publishing deals.
Initially, this would have seen the original four songwriters with a 21.25 percent share each, while Gallaspy and Williams would split a 15 percent take. However, things are now a little more complicated for the song, which is tied for the second-longest reign on the Billboard Hot 100.
Readers can check out Billboard‘s infographic on how the 11 writers of ‘Uptown Funk’ split the song’s profits below, which includes a few surprises. For starters, Bruno Mars takes home a slightly larger cut than Ronson.
