Ed Sheeran has broken millions of hearts with his mournful ballad 'Photograph' - not least two songwriters claiming its a copy of one of their tunes, and they want $20million for their efforts.
Remember Matt Cardle? The 'X Factor' winner had a string of releases following his 2010 victory, and his third release was a song called 'Amazing', penned by Martin Harrington and Thomas Leonard.
Experienced in the business with songs for Kylie Minogue under their belt, they claim that 'Photograph' is a "note-for-note" copy of this song, which only got to number 84 in the UK charts - slightly less fruitfully than Ed's multi-million bestseller, now on the soundtrack of weepy drama 'Me Before You', which has been viewed more than 200million times on YouTube.
In their lawsuit, they claim: “The chorus sections of Amazing and the infringing Photograph share 39 identical notes – meaning the notes are identical in pitch, rhythmic duration, and placement in the measure. The songs’ similarities reach the very essence of the work. The similarities go beyond substantial, which is itself sufficient to establish copyright infringement, and are in fact striking. The similarity of words, vocal style, vocal melody, melody, and rhythm are clear indicators, among other things, that Photograph copies Amazing.”
Hmm… it seems they're not the first to notice some similarities in the two tunes. Éire Creative, a Sydney-based creative design, animation and editing studio, were moved to post this helpful compare-and-contrast video on YouTube, so you can listen for yourself - see what you think!