Lil Nas X has like a zillion dollars worth of lawsuits coming at him all of the sudden. There’s the Bobby Caldwell “Carry On,” issue. And right now I’m going to look at a new complaint that “Rodeo” sounds too much like a track called “Broad Day” by PuertoReefa and Sakrite Duexe. It would seem …

And such has been known to backfire. I’m not saying it’s a bad idea, but on one famous occasion, it certainly might’ve been. This is not a musicological issue really, it’s more of a legal one, and I’m not a lawyer, but it’s Jimi Hendrix, and so it’s too interesting for me to ignore. The …

Bad Bunny is being sued by BM Records, which controls the rights to a bunch of mixtapes from the 1990’s by DJ Playero. BM Records and DJ Playero get a lot of credit for the development of reggaeton. (Thanks a lot for that, by the way.) And they claim Bad Bunny’s hit Safaera contains material …

The biggest record in the world, Olivia Rodrigo’s “Sour” has been under constant fire since it came out at the beginning of summer. Early on, she gave Taylor Swift a songwriting credit for “deja vu,” Sour’s third track? After that it was pretty much open season. Next, the promotional art was too much like a …

I know, we can’t even hear Vibeking, but I’ll explain and you’ll understand and it’ll all take about four minutes. Here we go… The Weekend (Weeknd) is getting sued for copyright infringement. Yes, again. This time by a pair of composer/producers named Suniel Fox and Henry Strange, collectively “Epikker” (awesome name), who think “Call Out …

Olivia Rodrigo’s record was about a big a deal in my house as any release in a long time. Drivers License had worn out its welcome, and Good 4 You, which was like 10x better in every way, was all I heard for a week. Then I heard about the Paramore comparison, and immediately imagined, …

TMZ reports there’s a lawsuit out there today because a couple of songwriters heard Jake Owens’s “Made For You” and its “Do, Mi, Re… Do” melody along with the lyric, “I was made for you.” They rightly thought it was very similar to the cadence in their own “Made For You” song. And THEN they …

Still awaiting its day in court but Musicologize knows the arguments and has already reached judgment. “Let’s Get It On” versus “Thinking Out Loud” is probably the most high-profile and interesting case out there. And since it follows a series of others that left the state of copyright law seemingly in disarray the question is …

Jay-Z and Timbaland still have to deal with Ernie Hines after all. If there is no settlement, and I really hope there is not, this case is way more interesting than it at first appears; a lot to look at. How’s it likely to end? We’ll get to that. First though, let’s look at the …

An email from an artist scared to put their own work out into the world for fear it would be copied, plagiarized, infringed upon, otherwise ripped off: “I’m a producer and songwriter. I’d love to show my stuff to producers and artists, but I’m afraid they’ll steal it. Should I send it anyway?” With all …

Got time for a quick story? Just last week my daughter all of the sudden wanted to learn acoustic guitar. Specifically, Paul McCartney’s “Blackbird.” Two days later, with a little help from me and a little from the internet, pretty much never having touched a guitar prior, she could play Blackbird. (Thanks to some youtube …