This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Business News Labels & Publishers
Sam Smith gives Tom Petty songwriting credit, despite ‘coincidental’ song similarities
By Andy Malt | Published on Tuesday 27 January 2015
Sam Smith has changed the credits on his hit ‘Stay With Me’ to include Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne as co-songwriters, following a copyright dispute.
Petty and Lynne’s publishers Wixen Music and EMI Music Publishing recently raised questions over similarities between ‘Stay With Me’ – originally credited to Smith, James Napier and William Phillips – and Petty’s ‘I Won’t Back Down, which was co-written with Lynne.
In a statement, a rep for Smith confirmed the change to Rolling Stone, saying: “Not previously familiar with the 1989 Petty/Lynne song, the writers of ‘Stay With Me’ listened to ‘I Won’t Back Down’ and [nonetheless] acknowledged the similarity. Although the likeness was a complete coincidence, all involved came to an immediate and amicable agreement in which Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne are now credited as co-writers of ‘Stay With Me’ along with Sam Smith, James Napier and William Phillips”.
If the similarities were indeed ‘coincidental’, you might ask why Smith and his publisher, Sony/ATV would back down so quickly. It may be to do with what’s known as ‘sub-conscious infringement’, in that it’s possible to infringe copyright without actively realising it.
Which means that if the matter had gone to court, there would have been a focus on whether Smith, Napier or Phillips may have inadvertently heard the song at any point and subconsciously adapted it. It’s a tricky area of copyright law, but it’s how they got Elastica. So I guess, if you can, settle now and avoid falling foul to ambiguous law.
