Thinking Out Loud: What Ed Sheeran’s copyright trial means for the music industry
The US Supreme Court rejected an attempt to revive the case.
Ed Sheeran’s long-running copyright battle over his hit Thinking Out Loud is finally over. That’s after the US Supreme Court rejected an appeal to revive the copyright trial. It all started back in 2016 when Sheeran and his co-writer Amy Wadge were sued for allegedly copying Marvin Gaye’s 1973 classic Let’s Get It On. Sheeran, whose subsequent hits include Azizam and Shape of You, ended up winning that case, with the judge saying that lots of songs share similar elements and that Gaye’s chord progressions couldn’t be copyrighted. But the family of Ed Townsend, who co-wrote the song with Gaye, appealed the case, and it dragged on for nearly ten years.
ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ music correspondent Mark Savage breaks down the case and gives a quick rundown of how copyright law works in music. He also discusses other famous plagiarism allegations and the rules around sampling music to create new songs.
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Presenter: Hannah Gelbart
Producers: William Lee Adams, Emilia Jansson, Benita Barden
Editor: Verity Wilde
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- Wed 18 Jun 2025 17:50GMTÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ World Service News Internet
- Thu 19 Jun 2025 02:50GMTÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ World Service East and Southern Africa, South Asia, West and Central Africa & East Asia only
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