How do I make sure that I’m not copying someone else’s music?

This might sound like a daft question, but the situation is actually more nuanced than you might imagine. Obviously, stealing a riff or melody wholesale may land you in hot legal water – assuming your track ever reaches a wide enough audience, that is – and sampling a portion of someone else’s work without permission is also a no-no.

So far, so straightforward, but recent events make things more complicated. You may be aware of the long-running legal battle between Marvin Gaye’s estate and Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke. Team

Gaye claimed that Williams’ and Thicke’s 2013 hit Blurred Lines copied the ‘feel’ of their man’s 1977 track Got To Give It Up, winning the initial case and, recently, the appeal. This sets a precedent that’s likely to lead to more similar cases in the future, and – if you’ll pardon the pun – blurs the lines when it comes to deciding what the rules of the songwriting game actually are.

Funnily enough, another Marvin Gaye song is at the centre of another case; the estate of the late Ed Townsend, who co-wrote Let’s Get It

On, is taking Ed Sheeran to court based on similarities between that song and Sheeran’s Thinking Out

Loud. This will go before a jury after a judge noted that the two songs might be seen to have the same “aesthetic appeal”; it remains to be seen what the verdict will be.

So, the answer is that it’s pretty much impossible to absolutely guarantee that your music won’t bear any resemblance to something that’s gone before – or that someone won’t claim that it does – even if you’re not consciously copying anyone. That said, you shouldn’t spend your life living in fear of plagiarism – just make sure that your work is as original as it can be.