Olivia Rodrigo became a teen sensation with her debut single “Drivers License.” Since the release of her album Sour, when she dropped songs “Good 4 U” and “Deja Vu” fans and others pointed out similarities with other popular songs. So, the singing sensation has shared royalties and writing credit retroactively with Hayley Williams and Joshua Farro and Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff and St. Vincent (Annie Clark).
According to Wednesday’s report on Billboard, Paramore’s Williams and Farro will get half of the royalties of “Gone 4 U” as the song is very similar to Paramore’s hit “Misery Business.” The other half will be for Rodrigo and her collaborator Daniel Nigro. The song was a super hit and hit the No.1 spot in the Hot 100. Then it stayed at No. 2 for almost three months. The duo could receive almost $1.2 million.
Billboard also reported that Taylor Swift, Jack Antanoff and Annie Clark will get 50 percent of Deja Vu’s earnings as it is similar to Taylor’s “Cruel Summer” from the 2019 album “Lover” while Rodrigo and Nigro will share the remaining 50 percent. The report estimates that Swift could earn $325,678 while Antonoff could rake in $260,542 and Clark could get $65,135.
Taylor Swift and Jack Antanoff will get two third of the royalties, one third each for “1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Backwards” for an interpolation from “New Year’s Day” which Swift dropped in 2017 and Rodrigo with take the last third for writing the song. Each of the three artists could have already earned $86,000.
Buzzfeed News contacted Rodrigo’s reps for comment and clarification of numbers but has not received a response, as yet.
When Elvis Costello was told that Rodrigo had copied a guitar riff from one of his songs for her album-opener Brutal, he tweeted that it was fine by him. He added that it was how rock and roll worked. He said that an artist took broken pieces of “another thrill” and made a “brand new toy.”
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