Beyoncé may have quietly removed a portion of her song Energy that interpolated Kelis’ Milkshake… but did she do anything wrong in the first place? This drama is the latest in a long line of musical spats that boil down to the question of who owns a song. In the past few years Ed Sheeran and Olivia Rodrigo have had to give writing credits after the fact to artists who claimed that their songs were guilty of plagiarism, despite the songs in question neither sampling nor interpolating the material in question. Here’s our take on the drama, where the line is drawn, and why maybe even if you don’t legally deserve a credit, maybe you still deserve respect.
00:00 What to make of the messy Beyoncé-Kelis beef 01:48 When is credit really due in the music inudstry? 05:00 Songs have always been inspired by each other 10:21 Why it's so important to protect creative freedom
