Musicology

I’ve only got a few minutes for this rush to judgment. Three should be plenty. Start the clock. I used to love lame-ass jazz funk-pop. A track like Shakatak’s “Easier Said Than Done” would’ve been in heavy rotation on my car stereo with the Jensens in the back, Blaupunkts in the doors, zillion-band equalizer. I …

I’ve got a couple podcast or radio interviews today and tomorrow because of this BBC article about K-pop bands using AI to create music videos and possibly (ooh scary) some of their “music.” The K-pop band, Seventeen, has their fans in a tizzy. (They’re all twenty-five and up, by the way, though, in fairness, they’ve …

Producers Joshua Fraustro and Miguel Aguilar, who go by Kemika1956, are suing Cardi B because in their estimation her 2024 Top 10 hit, “Enough (Miami)” song, sounds like their “Greasy Frybread,” which was placed in the FX series, Reservation Dogs. They’re suing Cardi, along with “Enough” producers James D. Steed (DJ Swanqo) and Joshua Parker (OG Parker) and they’re even claiming …

I happened upon this copyright infringement accusation today and thought, “It’s a lovely day, I’m in a great mood (oddly enough). Sure, I’ll check it out. Glad I did. It turns out the allegedly infringing song has been number one on Ghana’s Apple Music chart for weeks. It’s huge. It has millions of views across …

Music copyright continues to have the problem of asymmetric risk borne by defendants against copyright infringement claims that I’d politely characterize as far-fetched, and therefore to some extent incentivizes them, both of which fly in the face of copyright’s purpose; to promote creativity so the world can enjoy its fruits. This case is just the …

No good deed goes unpunished, Beyoncé! Overall, this looks like one of the dumbest lawsuits of all time. AND YET, it’s got a few interesting twists and turns that make it worth a few lines here. Beyonce’s troubles stem from Break My Soul’s sample from New Orleans artist Big Freedia. No good deed goes unpunished. …

A reader asked an interesting question, which was: “Since the plaintiff, Structured Asset Sales, doesn’t own the “Let’s Get It On” recording, how can they use it to register the musical elements of “Let’s Get It On,” and why would they be able to sue for the recording’s elements in addition to the ones on …

The new Chevrolet Silverado commercial sounds just like The Monkees “Pleasant Valley Sunday!” How can that be legal?? If you get two inquiries like that, there must be a lot of people wondering, “How is Chevy getting away with copying “Pleasant Valley Sunday” and using it to sell a truck?” Isn’t this infringement? Well, no. …

About a year ago, a jury found that Ed Sheeran had not copied Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On” when he wrote “Thinking Out Loud.” And while that trial, in which the plaintiff was the estate of Ed Townsend, received a lot of media attention, there was another with a different plaintiff and stakeholder in …

On April 4, 2024, Tuff City Records sued Universal Music Group over an alleged infringement that dates back to 1992, when Mary J. Blige, just twenty-one years old, released her first top-ten hit, “Real Love.” The complaint, filed in New York, claims “Real Love” infringes on a well-sampled record from 1973, the Honey Drippers (not …