Ed Sheeran claims he inquired about whether the song sounded too similar to Coldplay

According to Ed Sheeran, he asked Coldplay vocalist Chris Martin if his song was too similar to theirs

All week, the singer-songwriter testified in a US copyright infringement trial over similarities between his smash song ‘Thinking Out Loud’ and Marvin Gaye’s ‘Let’s Get It On’.

The court said Sheeran did not replicate the song earlier today (Thursday 4 May).

On the stand to defend himself, Sheeran played guitar, showing how he wrote the song and how many pop songs with the same chord pattern can blend together.

This week, Ed Sheeran faced a copyright infringement trial. Copyright Press Wire/Shutterstock

athryn Townsend Griffin, whose father Ed Townsend co-wrote ‘Let’s Get It On’ with Marvin Gaye, sued the 32-year-old, who missed his grandmother’s burial to appear in court this week.

Had Townsend won, the case may have changed the music industry and defined songwriter plagiarism.

Sheeran told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe this week: “Songwriters don’t normally sue each other. Sometimes, but not always.

“I feel like in the songwriting community, everyone sort of knows that there’s four chords primarily that are used and there’s eight notes.”

When he believed a song he wrote sounded too similar to one already out, the ‘Shape Of You’ singer would contact the artist to make sure everything was okay.

“I had a song that I wrote for Keith Urban and it sort of sounded like a Coldplay song.”

When Ed Sheeran wrote a song he thought sounded like Colplay, he approached Chris Martin. S.A.M./Alamy Stock Photo

Keith Urban’s ‘Parallel Line’ has a stanza that sounds like Coldplay’s ‘Everglow’.

I emailed Chris Martin, ‘This sounds like your track.’ Can we clear it? He said, “Don’t be silly.”

I know how songs are written, he said. I know you didn’t say, “I want to write this,” in the studio.”

Sheeran declared in the interview that he would ‘never’ sue a fellow musician.

I would never do it. Would never do that. I think people would come to me if they had. I cleared music for visitors.”

If convicted, Ed Sheeran will leave music. Per Edna Leshowitz/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

The artist even threatened to leave music if he lost the trial.

“If that happens, I’m done, I’m stopping,” he informed his lawyer, Ilene Farkas.

“I find it really insulting to devote my whole life to being a performer and a songwriter and have someone diminish it.”