Ed Sheeran Wins “Thinking Out Loud” Copyright Trial

Abby Jones
·3 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

The post Ed Sheeran Wins “Thinking Out Loud” Copyright Trial appeared first on Consequence.

Ed Sheeran has prevailed in a lawsuit claiming his song “Thinking Out Loud” copied Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On.”

After three hours of deliberation, a Manhattan jury decided that Sheeran’s 2014 hit was “independently created” and did not steal elements from Gaye’s 1973 song. Sheeran’s lawyer Ilene Farkas said the similar chord progression was akin to “the letters of the alphabet of music,” adding that “these are basic musical building blocks that songwriters now and forever must be free to use, or all of us who love music will be poorer for it.”

Following the decision, Sheeran joked about “not having to retire from my day job after all” before delivering a statement about his frustration with “baseless claims like this” being allowed “to go to court at all.” He continued by saying, “We’ve spent the last eight years talking about two songs with dramatically different lyrics, melodies, and four chords, which are also different and used by songwriters every day, all over the world.”

“These chords are common building blocks which were used to create music long before ‘Let’s Get It On’ was written and will be used to make music long after we are all gone. They are in a songwriter’s alphabet, our toolkit, and should be there for all of us to use. No one owns them or the way they are played, in the same way no one owns the color blue.”

Structured Asset Sales, an entity that owns part of the copyrights of “Let’s Get It On” co-writer Ed Townsend, filed the copyright infringement lawsuit in 2018. Sheeran’s attorneys sought to get the case dismissed, arguing that the similar elements between “Thinking Out Loud” and “Let’s Get It On” were too common to constitute copyright infringement.

Sheeran also vehemently insisted that any similarities between his 2014 hit and Gaye’s 1973 song were purely coincidental; he reportedly “belted out various mashups of Van Morrison songs for the courtroom” during his testimony to argue his point, and even said he’d be “done” with music if he was found guilty: “I’m stopping,” he said when asked what he’d do if the plaintiffs won the case. “I find it really insulting to work my whole life as a singer-songwriter and diminish it.”

In September 2022, Judge Louis Stanton decided that Sheeran and Structured Asset Sales would have to argue their points in front of a jury, who would then decide whether “Thinking Out Loud” ripped off “Let’s Get It On.”

The high-profile case sparked discussions outside the courtroom about what copyright suits like these could mean for songwriting. The plaintiffs’ nebulous definition of the two songs’ similarities provoked concerns about artists self-censoring their work to avoid legal kerfuffles, and that frivolous infringement cases would ultimately defeat the purpose of copyright law. Some other relevant examples: Gaye’s heirs notoriously won a case in 2015 that claimed Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams stole elements of his song “Got to Give it Up” for their hit “Blurred Lines,” while Sheeran won another copyright infringement case last year involving “Shape of You.”

But now, with his legal drama behind him, Sheeran is set to kick off his “Mathematics Tour” this weekend. The North American run comprises arena gigs as well as a handful of intimate theater shows. Check for seats and deals via StubHub, where orders are 100% guaranteed through StubHub’s FanProtect program. StubHub is a secondary market ticketing platform, and prices may be higher or lower than face value, depending on demand.

Ed Sheeran Wins “Thinking Out Loud” Copyright Trial
Abby Jones

Popular Posts

Subscribe to Consequence’s email digest and get the latest breaking news in music, film, and television, tour updates, access to exclusive giveaways, and more straight to your inbox.