Ed Sheeran On Winning The Plagiarism Lawsuit, ‘It’s Damaging The Songwriting Industry’

Ed Sheeran recently released a statement about the lawsuit he and his songwriters faced after releasing Spotify’s most-streamed song ‘Shape of You.’ The pop star expressed his sadness over witnessing these accusations so often and stated that they damaged the songwriting industry.

‘Shape of You’ was released in 2017, and it became a worldwide known song and was a number one hit for social media trends. Sheeran reached success as he had never before after the release of this song and reached an important milestone in his career. The song became the most streamed song on Spotify by December 2019.

The songwriters, Ed Sheeran, Snow Patrol’s John McDaid, and producer Steve McCutcheon had to face a lawsuit for accusations over ripping off ‘Oh Why’ by Sami Chokri and Ross O’Donoghue that was released in 2015. They battled in court, and Sheeran recently made his defensive statement. He rejected all the claims, and the court eventually found him not guilty.

After the court, Ed Sheeran made a statement on behalf of all the songwriters. The musician stated that he was happy with the result. He also said that coincidences might happen as many songs are being released in a year on Spotify. Hence, the idea of claiming every little thing as plagiarism damages the songwriting skills of an artist and the industry itself. The musician ended his speech by saying he is also looking forward to writing more songs instead of being in a position where he has to prove it’s his song.

In the statement, Sheeran said:

“Hey guys, me, Johnny, and Steve have made a joint statement that there will be a press release of the outcome of this case, but I wanted to make a small video to talk about it a bit because I haven’t been able to say anything while this has been going on. We’re obviously happy with the result. I feel like claims like this are way too common now.

It became a culture where a claim is made with the idea that settlement will be cheaper than taking it to court even if there’s no base for the claim. It’s really damaging to the songwriting industry. There are only so many notes and very few chords used in pop music. Coincidences are bound to happen if 60.000 songs are being released every day on Spotify. That’s 22 million songs a year. There are only 20 notes available.

I don’t want to take anything away from the pain and hurt suffered from both sides of this case, but I just want to say I’m not an entity. I’m not a corporation. I’m a human being. I’m a father. I’m a husband. I’m a son. Lawsuits are not a pleasant experience, and I hope this ruling means in the future baseless claims like this will be avoided. This really does have to end. I, Johnny, and Steve are very grateful for all the support from fellow songwriters over the last few weeks. Hopefully, we can all get back to writing songs rather than having to prove we can write them. Thank you.”

You can watch his video and listen to mentioned songs below.