You can hear Ed Sheeran‘s name in courtrooms almost as often as you hear it on playlists. No one thought that guy with the ginger hair and the loop pedal would do something like that. He busked his way to fame. Though there have been many lawsuits, settlements, and a very publicized jury trial, people are still asking the same thing: what did he copy, and from whom?
The case that got the most attention was “Thinking Out Loud,” his 2014 ballad that was played at weddings for at least three years in a row. Marvin Gaye’s 1973 hit “Let’s Get It On” was co-written by Ed Townsend. His children and grandchildren have sued Sheeran, saying that their song was heavily influenced by theirs. An amount of $100 million was asked for in damages. It’s not a rounding mistake.
The trial was really interesting from a legal point of view because the question got so specific. When Townsend died, the only thing that could legally be protected was the sheet music that was turned in to the Copyright Office. This is because “Let’s Get It On” was written before 1978. In other words, there is no bassline. There is only the chord progression and harmonic rhythm. All of a sudden, a case that seemed very broad turned into a very specific argument about whether a few chords belonged to Marvin Gaye or to music itself.
The main thing Sheeran said to defend them was that they were part of music itself. Many people found his argument pretty convincing: pop music only uses a few chords, and since tens of thousands of new songs come out every week, coincidences are bound to happen. Musicians have been making this point for decades, and it makes sense. But it’s also the kind of argument that gets old when the same artist makes it over and over again in different songs.
Since “Thinking Out Loud” wasn’t the first song. Before that, there was “Photograph,” a $20 million lawsuit that said the song sounded a lot like “Amazing,” a song written for X Factor winner Matt Cardle. That case was settled, and the original songwriters got credit for their work from the beginning. The amount of the settlement was not disclosed. Then there was “The Rest of Our Life,” a song Sheeran co-wrote with Faith Hill and Tim McGraw. Two Australian songwriters said it was an obvious copy of their song. Then there was another settlement. Some of these cases might have been caused by chance. It’s also possible for a pattern to be a pattern.
For example, the people who were suing over “Thinking Out Loud” really made good use of a video of Sheeran himself combining his song with “Let’s Get It On” during a live performance. The argument was easy to understand: if the songs go together so well, then maybe that’s the point. Sheeran’s lawyers argued that he couldn’t own chord progressions that are already in the public domain. In the end, the jury agreed with Sheeran and found him not guilty of infringement. But the moment stays with us because it brings up a question that no verdict can quite answer.
There has always been borrowing in the music business. Influence moves in all directions, even when people aren’t aware of it. Now, the stakes are much higher, everything can be searched and compared thanks to algorithms, and juries are expected to judge music theory without the need to know how to read sheet music. What’s going on there is strange for everyone.
Sheeran himself has said that lawsuits are sad and bad. Not much can be said against that. Another thing that’s hard to argue with is that some of these problems could have been avoided if the artists had done their homework and played the finished song for honest people before putting it out there. Talent doesn’t protect you. And busy doesn’t mean careful.
