A Beginner's Guide to Music Copyright

By Tatum Jenkins

Music copyright never entered my mind as a listener until the infamous case between Robin Thicke and Pharrel Williams and Marvin Gaye’s estate over the hit song “Blurred Lines.” The Gaye estate accused the two musicians of taking more than just inspiration from “Let’s Get It On,” posting that they had blatantly copied parts of the song. In the end, Thicke and Williams had to pay over $5 million for their mistake, proving just how powerful music copyright is. Music copyright has become increasingly more complicated as more music is put out into the world via streaming platforms. However, breaking it down and looking at the positives and negatives of each branch of music copyright can make it seem a little less confusing.

Music Copyright - An Overview 

For how powerful it is, it’s a very simple process to get a song copyrighted. Once made into a tangible form – whether that’s a sound recording or written down – a musician and/or their team files and applies for copyright through the U.S. Copyright Office, paying a fee and providing them with copies of the work. Once that work is deemed “original” and copyrighted, the owners and authorized third parties can take advantage of the benefits afforded to a copyrighted work. These rights include the ability to reproduce and distribute the work, make other copies of it (CDs, songbooks, etc.), and publicly perform and display the work. Essentially, copyright is what allows an artist to make money from their art, and this copyright lasts seventy years after the artist’s life, allowing their heirs to make money from it as well.

Music Copyright in Court - An Overview

Copyright is quite an impenetrable force, and it’s quite hard to prove with music if someone stole or copied parts of a song. Artists defending their creations must prove that they had either no access to the work another is alleging they copied or that it’s actually quite different from the “copied work.” However, if the artist fails to prove the originality of their work, the other musician can obtain “injunctive relief” (restricts a party’s actions regarding the work), seize control of the work, and recover lost profits. 

Copyright - Melodies

Deciding whether a piece of music, specifically melodies within a song, is original or not has become increasingly difficult as more and more music is put out into the world. Many argue there are so many combinations of notes and chord progressions that unintentional mimicking is bound to happen. Taking inspiration from a work is also dangerous as inspiration can be misconstrued and interpreted as direct imitation.

One case in which melodic mimicking was wrongfully condoned was the Katy Perry “Dark Horse” case. Rapper Flame accused Perry of copying the instrumental from his song “Joyful Noise.” The musicologist present in the case presented biased information, purposefully not showing the jury songs with a similar – if not, exact – melody and using their lack of music knowledge to convince them to side with Flame. While Flame won the case in 2019, the decision was reversed in 2020.

This case in particular reveals two major faults with music copyright in court: first, unknowledgeable jury members can easily be swayed by inaccurate information about music theory, and second, “copying a melody” is a vague claim as there are endless amounts of music that share similar chord progressions and notes.

In these cases, many argue that exposure to the copied work should be tested rather than how similar the two pieces are as that can be concretely proven.

Copyright - Lyrics

Music copyright in court of lyrics is much simpler than melodies as it has to deal with actual words rather than more theoretical concepts. There aren’t many cases of lyrical copyright to draw from as, most of the time, the label decides to add the person accusing an artist of copyright to the songwriting credits.

Other Ways to Credit Songwriters and Producers

While cases of music plagiarism can be settled legally, there are other options that allow for a creator to take credit for their work. Instead of going to court, most labels deal with this issue by including the names of those accusing the artist of plagiarism in the songwriter credits, granting them part of the profits of the song. This comes with its own problems though, especially once the profits from a song are divided, leaving the original songwriters and producers with little income. There also comes a point when you have to ask, are all these credits necessary? If a person is still making work off of their own piece and someone unintentionally copies it a bit, does that warrant a songwriting or producing credit?

Sampling 

Musicians can also choose to obtain permission – or a “sampling clearance” – from an artist to sample their work. This is another way to avoid legal action when it comes to copying another person’s work. Similarly to a songwriting credit though, the original creator of the sample can ask for a small royalty off the profits of the song or ask to be more involved in the ownership of the song.