And finally… where there’s a hit, there’s a writ
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A court has heard that Ed Sheeran and his co-writers of the song Shape of You are earning around £5 million a year from the song, despite nearly 10% of the payments being frozen.
Payments for radio and public performances of the song were suspended after another singer claimed elements of Shape of You had been stolen from his 2015 song Oh Why.
The copyright case between Ed Sheeran and songwriter Sami Chokri heard that when royalties were frozen in May 2018, revenues from plays of the song on streaming services, such as Spotify, could not be targeted.
This meant that Sheeran, his co-writers and the record labels owning their publishing rights still benefitted from an annual pay of about £5 million, The Times reports.
Sami Chokri and his co-writer Ross O’Donoghue have claimed that the “Oh why” hook in their 2015 track was ripped off by Sheeran and his co-writers.
Sheeran and his co-writers have said they had not even heard Oh Why by the time they created Shape of You in October 2016.
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