Ed Sheeran at the 2019 Sziget Festival
Photo: Redferns, Didier Messens. All rights reserved.
Ed Sheeran won the copyright lawsuit for his song “Thinking Out Loud” (from 2014) on May 4, 2023. The 32-year-old musician has been accused by Ed Townsend’s (a co-songwriter of Marvin Gaye) heirs of helping himself to the Marvin Gaye hit “Let’s Get It On.” The day after the verdict, Sheeran’s new album “-” (Subtract) was released, prompting the musician to promote it in several interviews. The Brit also gave “CBS Sunday Morning” time for a conversation. When the interviewer also asked Ed Sheeran about the upcoming trial (which hadn’t happened at the time of filming), the “Shape Of You” hitmaker also threw up some statements regarding the copyright dispute. In his opinion, behind such allegations would be “a big money deal”.
“There are four chords that are used in pop songs,” the singer introduced his answer. He then went on to say, “And if you just think mathematically, the odds are that this song has the same chords as this song — there are numerous, numerous songs, they’re all the same four chords…”
Sheeran added, “You’re going to experience that with every single pop song from now on. Unless it just stops, which I don’t think so because taking things to court is a big money business. But you can only get caught when you do something wrong, and I didn’t do anything wrong. I used four chords that are very commonly used.”
According to several media reports, the pop star had demonstrated in court with his guitar how similar many pop songs are in terms of chord progressions. He and his lawyers argued that he was far from the only one using this common chord progression. The trial (though not the first of its kind) attracted international attention — a guilty verdict would undoubtedly have upended the popular music copyright issue and potentially inspired further trials. Sheeran explained that other songwriters have told him that he “has to win the case for them”. “I find it really insulting how the work of my entire life is disparaged by someone saying I stole it,” the artist was quoted as saying by multiple outlets.