Headed to court.
A copyright infringement lawsuit was filed in California this week against Dan + Shay and Justin Bieber, along with their fellow songwriters, publishers and record labels, alleging that they copied their 2019 hit “10,000 Hours” from a 1973 song, “The First Time Baby Is A Holiday.”
The lawsuit, a copy of which was obtained by Whiskey Riff, was filed by International Manufacturing Concepts, Melomega Music and Sound Gems, the company that owns the copyright to “First Time.” In the complaint, Melomega alleges that the song was written in 1973 by Palmer Rakes and Frank Fioravanti, and was registered with the US Copyright Office in 1980.
“First Time” was first recorded in 2014, and the copyright for the sound recording of that song was registered with the Copyright Office later that year. It was then released in September 2014, and was then released on three different albums by Melomega’s Sound Gems Records label in 2017 and 2019. The song was distributed by The Orchard, a distributor owned by Sony.
“10,000 Hours” was then released in 2019, and has since become a mega-hit for Dan + Shay and Bieber, racking up nearly two billion streams and winning numerous awards (remember back a year or two ago when that song was pretty much EVERYWHERE? Dark times).
The lawsuit claims that “10,000 Hours” is “practically identical” to “First Time,” and that a music expert found that the two were “practically the same song.”
The complaint alleges that 72% of the notes in the verse and chorus of “First Time” also appear in the chorus of “10,000 Hours,” and that the hooks of both songs are exactly the same, ending with the lyrics “for the rest of my life” set to the same melody.
Melomega is seeking an injunction prohibiting the defendants from distributing “10,000 Hours,” along with damages and an order that the copyright holders of “First Time” be added to the credits on Dan + Shay and Bieber’s song.
I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what happens, but it seems that more and more of these copyright lawsuits are happening these days. Just last year, Jake Owen was sued for copyright infringement over his hit song “Made For You.” That case was eventually settled earlier this year.
So what do you think? Did Dan + Shay and Bieber copy another song for their massive hit? Check out “The First Time Baby Is A Holiday” here:
And I’m sure you’ve heard it a million times, but here’s “10,000 Hours.”