Ed Sheeran wins another song-theft legal battle

CMU’s Andy Malt and Chris Cooke review key events in music and the music business from the last week, including Ed Sheeran’s victory in another high-profile headline-grabbing song-theft legal battle – this time over whether or not he ripped off Marvin Gaye’s ‘Let’s Get It On’ when he wrote his 2014 song ‘Thinking Out Loud’ – plus two sets of proposals for better regulating the sale of tickets put forward in US Congress late last month and another industry-led campaign launched last week that says it will advocate for “a ticketing experience better than the nightmare many fans and artists currently navigate”. SECTION TIMES 01: Ed Sheeran (00:05:36) 02: US tickets (00:18:52) (Timings may be slightly different due to adverts) STORIES DISCUSSED THIS WEEK • Non-idiot (allegedly) Ed Sheeran testifies on first day of Thinking Out Loud song-theft trial • Ed Sheeran gets his guitar out in court as song-theft case continues • Ed Sheeran calls musicologist’s actions “criminal” in Thinking Out Loud song-theft trial • Ed Sheeran losing will remove “an essential element in every songwriter’s toolkit”, argues lawyer in song-theft case • Ed Sheeran did not rip off Let’s Get It On says jury in song-theft case • Live Nation responds to proposed new ticketing regulations in the US ALSO MENTIONED • The Great Escape conference MORE FROM CMU • Upcoming CMU webinars • Buy MMF and CMU Insights’ Dissecting The Digital Dollar book on Amazon • Sign up to receive the CMU Daily news bulletin • Listen to the full Setlist theme tune