June 8, 2022
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As reported by Reuters, Canadian musician Tyler Armes claimed that he deserved credit for Post Malone’s number one hit song, “Circles”. However, a federal court in Los Angeles disagreed.
While Armes had no claim related to the final version of “Circles”, he was nonetheless permitted to bring his suit regarding purported rights to an earlier version of the song. A favourable verdict on this claim would still have been a significant win for Armes, potentially entitling him to some profits from the commercially released track.
Armes’ lawsuit stemmed from an August 2018 recording session at which he claims to have had such significant input into creating the song that Post Malone offered him 5% of the publishing royalties. Armes rejected this offer and asked for a higher percentage, as well as co-writing and producing credits. Post Malone’s team refused the counter-offer and Armes admitted to having no involvement with the song after the session.
Post Malone’s legal team agreed that Armes attended the 2018 recording session, but denied that he co-authored the song. The judge described Armes’ contributions as an “extremely common” chord progression and co-writing a bass line, neither of which were original enough to be copyrightable.
Authors: Hannah Johnson and Awale Deria