Musicology

Is Ice Spice’s “In Ha Mood,” copyright infringement? Or just a coincidence? The news of this case came out only hours ago, but here we are taking a cold look and looking for a hot take on the same day! Almost exactly a year after putting out “In Ha Mood,” Ice Spice now faces this …

For better or worse, who doesn’t love lists? And if you write one “best/worst of the year” article, you somewhat obligate yourself to do it annually. So here are the 5 best and worst music copyright stories of 2023. And 2023 seems like a more important year than most in this regard. At the 2022 …

Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” is by most metrics the top Christmas song of all time. And where there’s a hit, there’s a writ. Headlines are blaring: “Was Carey inspired by another song of the same name? Did she plagiarize it? Does it infringe?” Not even close. Let’s make quick work …

Short answer, “No. Not yet.” Not according to this. Two papers came out recently pitting human ears against computer analysis to see which is better at detecting musical similarity, and prompting headlines such as “Are computers really better at judging copyright infringement cases than humans?” and “Artificial Intelligence as a Solution to Unpredictable Musical Copyright …

Anthropic, like artificial intelligence itself, is inevitable. They’re one of the most well-funded AI’s out there, with a billion plus from Amazon, Google, and even Sam Bankman Fried. Amazingly, while SBF himself appears likely headed to jail for fifty years or so, it may turn out that FTX and Alameda are actually solvent as a …

Two hours was barely enough to cover the main issues, about half of which were legalities and procedural, and the other half musicological. This case involves about 1800 songs and 180 defendants! First thoughts are a bit comforting, the judge in this case, the Honorable André Birotte Jr., is pretty on top of things. He’s …

Th th th think we found a loophole? Eighties rap star Rodney O is suing NLE Choppa because Choppa’s hit “Who TF Up In My Trap” might infringe upon the copyrights of a hip hop classic, “Everlasting Bass,” which Rodney O and Joe Cooley recorded in 1988. This case could prove very interesting, particularly in …

In his interview on the Howard Stern show, Ed Sheeran talked more about what he had said during the “Let’s Get It On” trial — that he might quit the music business altogether if the case was decided against him. I remember not taking it seriously at the time. But looking at this interview, and …

Someone shared with me Sheeran’s interview on Howard Stern. Mr. Stern asked Mr. Sheeran to play through some examples of (he put it well) “how similar things can be.” And Sheeran obliged. This does show, as Howard said, “how similar things can be.” But it shows something else too. Forensic musicologists are asked to analyze …

Ernie Hines’ 1960’s single “Help Me Put Out The Flame (In My Heart)” was sampled for Jay-Z’s “Paper Chase” and Ginuwine’s “Toe 2 Toe.” Hines sued, and he just lost. But despite some confusing headline stories about the case, nobody should imagine this makes a case for sampling without a license and getting away with …