Neither the 1959 stage musical "The Sound of Music" nor any of the songs from its book are in the public domain. So Ariana Grande got away with using its most famous song the old-fashioned way: by ponying up for it.

And no one gives their "Favorite Things" away cheaply, including the estates of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. Reportedly, 90% of the proceeds from Grande's pop hit "7 Rings" go to the estates of the legendary duo who wrote the original musical. 

That rather shocking number was revealed by the New York Times, which investigated the story, possibly expecting a juicy plagiarism scandal. There's no shortage of those in modern pop music, and, as you say, there's no denying that "7 Rings" is derived from "My Favorite Things." It's essentially a cover, with Grande using the music and delivery of the original but replacing the lyrics about simple pleasures with brags about Grande's financial successes.

Instead of a juicy plagiarism scandal, however, the Times found that there wasn't a lot of back-and-forth at all: Grande's label approached the company that manages Rodgers and Hammerstein's intellectual property, the company demanded 90%, and Grande's label said, "OK." (That's a bit of a paraphrase, but it's what things boiled down to.)

In hindsight, it seems like it was in fact a pretty shrewd deal -- even 10 per cent of the spoils of "7 Rings" is a lot. It was a massive hit, debuting at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart and breaking a record for the most plays in 24 hours on popular music service Spotify.

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