A very interesting podcast on The Verge about music copyright and how it has supposedly gone too far with lawsuits based on similarities between songs, rather than plagiarism. "We have seen a shift where the music industry has gone from being a physical goods business to an intellectual property business. When a song starts to succeed, we see all kinds of public lawsuits and private settlements to make sure that in order to recoup on your intellectual property, which is currently earning probably negligible revenue in streaming and other places, but when there’s an opportunity for a big thing that has hit at radio or might have a big sync license in a film, yeah, you’re going to go and see if you can get a piece of it. If you look at the public record of songs which are currently under litigation, they’re only songs which are succeeding overwhelmingly".

A great read in The Ringer about the cases of too similar songs, of which their creators aren't aware of: "We’re now squarely within a new era of music copyright litigation, signaled by a steep wave of fresh cases and settlements arriving on top of what was already a steadily rising tide. But while plagiarism has never been a larger industry issue than it is today, it also has never been more poorly defined. And given the way songwriters often borrow ideas without realizing that they’re borrowing—a documented artistic tendency that is likely increasing in frequency in our chaotic online world—this latest squall of disputes may be just the beginning of an even larger storm". The latest such case has involved Lorde's 'Solar Power', and Primal Scream's 'Loaded'.

Olivia Rodrigo has added Paramore's singer Hayley Williams and ex-guitarist Josh Farro as co-writers of her hit single 'Good 4 U'. They were not credited when the song was originally released in May. Warner Chappell Music announced this week via Instagram that Williams and Farro were now credited 'Good 4 U' songwriters. "The fact WCM confirmed this fact during 'Good 4 U' fourteenth week in the Top 5 of the Billboard Hot 100 perhaps says something about the journey that was required to make it happen" - Music Business Worldwide writes. C

Katy Perry has won an appeal in a copyright case involving damages of $2.8m (£2.3m) over song 'Dark Horse', which had previously been found in favour of rapper Flame, the New York Times reports. In July 2014, Perry was accused of plagiarising the song 'Joyful Noise' by a Christian rapper named Marcus Gray (AKA Flame), for her US No 1 hit 'Dark Horse', which was the second biggest-selling song worldwide that year. The songwriters sued, and in July 2019, a jury sided with Gray, and so Perry, along with five co-defendants including producer Max Martin and rapper Juicy J, were ordered to pay damages, with Perry herself owing $550,000. An appeal has reversed that decision, with the judge, Christina Snyder, setting aside the jury’s verdict saying it was “undisputed” that the eight-note section of 'Dark Horse' in question was “not a particularly unique or rare combination” of notes.