Zac Brown Sues OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder Over Song Rights
Zac Brown has filed a lawsuit against OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder over the rights to a song that he claims he should own, but Tedder gave away a key element to another artist.
In a legal filing that TMZ obtained, Brown alleges that he and Tedder began working on a song titled "Nowhere Left to Go" together in March of 2018. According to Brown's filing, Tedder provided a beat, around which Brown wrote the song with the understanding that he would retain final control of the finished composition.
Brown claims that when he sent Tedder a rough mix of the track, the songwriter and producer informed him that he hadn't realized Brown was moving forward with the song, and he had already given Diplo permission to use the same beat to create another track. Brown's suit states that Tedder's manager approached his manager in July, requesting that he delay the release of his song until Diplo was ready to release his.
Brown released "Nowhere Left to Go" in September as one of the tracks on his first-ever solo album, a pop collection titled The Controversy. His filing states that Tedder filed a takedown notice claiming that "Nowhere Left to Go" infringes on Tedder's copyright. Brown is asking for a court to affirm that he owns the song, and he is also seeking unspecified damages in his lawsuit.
Tedder had not responded to TMZ's request for comment at press time.
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