Yahoo News Ed Sheeran Performs Live in Court to Jury in Copyright Trial, Says He Wrote '10 Songs' This Week
The singer faces a $100 million copyright case against him over the alleged similarities between his 2014 single "Thinking Out Loud" and Marvin Gaye's 1973 hit "Let's Get It On"
Ed Sheeran's fourth day in court included a live performance and a detailed reflection of his career as a songwriter as he defended his musical abilities amidst a $100 million copyright case against him.
Sheeran, 32, is being sued for alleged copyright infringement over his 2014 single "Thinking Out Loud." Launched by Structured Asset Sales — who purchased a third of the shares of the song from the family of Ed Townsend, who co-wrote it with Gaye, in 2018 — the suit alleges that Sheeran's hit took elements directly from Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On."
Related:Ed Sheeran to Face $100 Million Jury Trial Over 'Thinking Out Loud': Report
On Thursday, he walked the court through his development as a songwriter by sharing that he has grown from writing one to two songs a day as a teenager to now writing eight to nine songs daily.
"If a song takes longer than a day, it's not worth pursuing," Sheeran said.
Sheeran said his different hits have been inspired by different moments in his life, adding that this week alone, he has written 10 songs.
The "Shape of You" singer said the creation of "Thinking Out Loud," was a "very collaborative" process between him and co-writer Amy Wedge. Sheeran recalled being inspired to create the song after hearing Wedge "mumbling" the chords as he got ready to go to dinner and said he knew they needed to write a song to them.
The lyrics were inspired by their personal struggles as Sheeran's grandmother had been diagnosed with cancer, his "grandad" had passed away, and Wedge was going through a family illness, he said.
As the day came to a close, he gave further insight into the songs' development by sharing that the original chorus lyrics were "I'm singing out now" before being changed to "I'm thinking out loud," and sang both versions, along with performing the opening chords on his guitar.
Sheeran was first sued over the song in 2016 by Townsend's family directly. That case was dismissed the following year before being relaunched in 2018, after the Townsend family sold a third of their shares in the song to Structured Asset Sales.
The organization took up the claim the family had dismissed previously, claiming that melodic, harmonic, rhythmic, instrumental, and dynamic elements in "Thinking Out Loud" were taken from Gaye's song, TMZ reported.
In September, a Manhattan federal judge ruled that a jury would be needed to resolve the copyright case, clearing the way for further legal action against the singer-songwriter.
Related:Ed Sheeran Wins 'Shape of You' Plagiarism Suit as He Calls Legal Battle 'Damaging' to Songwriting
"There is no bright-line rule that the combination of two unprotectable elements is insufficiently numerous to constitute an original work," Judge Louis Stanton said, according to Billboard. "A work may be copyrightable even though it is entirely a compilation of unprotectable elements."
The copyright case is not the first major legal trouble the "Eyes Closed" singer has run into. Last year, he was awarded over $1 million in legal costs after winning a plagiarism lawsuit filed against his hit song "Shape of You."
After being locked in a legal battle for years with Sami Chokri and Ross O'Donoghue, a pair of songwriters who claimed that the 2017 mega-hit ripped off their track "Oh Why," Sheeran and his two co-writers, Steve McCutcheon and Johnny McDaid were cleared of any such plagiarism in April 2022.
A judge ruled that Sheeran "neither deliberately nor subconsciously copied 'Oh Why' while writing 'Shape of You.'"
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After winning the lawsuit, Sheeran posted a video on Instagram sharing his satisfaction with the result, but also his fear of the possible ripple effects the case could have on the songwriting industry.
"I feel like claims like this are way too common now, and have become a culture where a claim is made with the idea that a settlement will be cheaper than taking it to court, even if there's no base for a claim," he said. "It's really damaging to the songwriting industry. There's only so many notes and very few chords used in pop music. Coincidence is bound to happen if 60,000 songs are being released every day on Spotify."
He continued, "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 that this ruling, it means that in the future, baseless claims like this can be avoided. This really does have to end."
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