Brian McBrearty — Forensic Musicologist

Brian McBrearty is a forensic musicologist and the founder of Musicologize, an independent practice focused on song similarity analysis, protectability assessment, and music copyright matters. Since 2015, he has been retained as an expert by artists, attorneys, labels, agencies, and production companies for clearances, pre-litigation analysis, and litigation support. His written work appears in public federal court filings, U.S. law reviews, and Musicologize.com, where his published case analyses represent the largest body of forensic musicology writing available.

Practice

Engagements include pre-release clearance review, comparative analysis in infringement disputes, rebuttal review of opposing expert reports, and preparation of demonstrative exhibits. Work product typically includes structured comparison tables, protectability mapping, recurrence and placement analysis, transcription where appropriate, and written explanation aligned to the question presented. The majority of matters resolve on the strength of the analysis without proceeding to trial.

Published Work & Academic Citations

Musicologize hosts over 225 published analyses of music copyright cases and issues — the largest body of forensic musicology commentary published by a single practitioner. This work has been cited in U.S. law review publications including the University of Richmond Law Review, Washington University Journal of Law & Policy, Rutgers University Law Review, Southern California Law Review, and Georgia State University Law Review.

Media

Brian has been quoted or interviewed on music copyright and similarity analysis in:

• Reuters
• BBC World Service — Newshour
• NPR — All Things Considered
• Courthouse News — Sidebar Podcast
• Ipse Dixit Podcast
• Scoring Notes Podcast

Selected Clients & Engagements

Clearance and consulting work for Universal Music Group artists, HBO, The Washington Post, and creative agencies. The practice serves attorneys, publishers, advertising agencies, music supervisors, producers, and composers.

Litigation & Public Record

Written work appears in public federal court filings, including:

• Bouchet p/k/a Rawyal v. Woods et al. — U.S. District Court, Western District of New York, No. 6:25-cv-06588-MAV
• Frisby v. Sony Music Entertainment et al. — U.S. District Court, Central District of California, No. 2:19-cv-01712-GW-AGR
• Sanders / EBA Executives, Inc. v. Brown et al. — U.S. District Court, Central District of California, No. 2:21-cv-09237-DSF-GJS

Additional consulting analysis in matters not reflected in public filings, including pre-litigation and confidential engagements.

Education

B.A., Music (Theory & Composition; Jazz Studies), Summa Cum Laude — State University of New York at New Paltz. B.S., Economics (Minor: Music Business) — State University of New York at Potsdam.

Professional Memberships

American Musicological Society. Society for Music Theory. Copyright Society of the USA. ASCAP.

Contact

(212) 217-9512 brianmcbrearty@gmail.com

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