Ed Sheeran isn’t going to be quitting music, but he’s “unbelievably frustrated” that he had to defend his songwriting in court.
Earlier Thursday in New York City, Sheeran won a copyright infringement lawsuit involving his Grammy-winning song “Thinking Out Loud” and the Marvin Gaye classic “Let’s Get It On.” During the trial, Sheeran said he would quit music if he was found liable. Speaking outside the courtroom following his victory, he said, “It looks like I’m not going to have to retire from my day job after all.”
However, he said, “I am unbelievably frustrated that baseless claims like this are allowed to go to court at all. We have spent the last eight years talking about two songs with dramatically different lyrics, melodies and four chords which are also different and used by songwriters every day, all over the world.”
Sheeran pointed out that chords are “common building blocks” that all songwriters use, adding, “No one owns them or the way they are played, in the same way nobody owns the color blue.”
Overall, Sheeran said that writers should be able to “write our original music and engage in independent creation without worrying at every step of the way that such creativity will be wrongly called into question.”
“It is devastating to be accused of stealing other people’s songs when we have put so much work into our livelihoods,” Sheeran continued. “I am just a guy with a guitar who loves writing music for people to enjoy. I am not and will never allow myself to be a piggy bank for anyone to shake.”
“Having to be in New York for this trial has meant that I have missed being with my family at my grandmother’s funeral in Ireland. I won’t get that time back.”
He then thanked his team, the jury and his co-writer, Amy Wadge.
“We need songwriters and the wider musical community to come together to bring back common sense,” Sheeran concluded. “These claims need to be stopped so that the creative process can carry on, and we can all just go back to making music.”
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