Pharrell, Robin Thicke and T.I.’s ‘Blurred Lines’ Made $16 Million

Pharrell and Robin Thicke must pay the Gaye estate $7.3 million. Read the updated story here.

The legal battle between the family of Marvin Gaye and Robin Thicke and Pharrell over "Blurred Lines" continues to wage on. In his opening statement, Richard Bush, the attorney for the Gaye family, said that the family was seeking $40 million from Thicke and Co. for making a song similar to Marvin Gaye's "Got To Give It Up." Earlier this week, the financial earnings from the song were made public and "Blurred Lines" was not worth half of the $40 million Bush and the Gaye family were originally going after. According to The Hollywood Reporter, "Blurred Lines" made a profit of $16,675, 690 with 5,658,214 going to Thicke, $5,153,457 going to Pharrell and $704,774 going to T.I. The rest of the money was split up between Interscope, UMG Distribution and StarTrak. During the trial, a Universal Music executive said that the song cost $6.9 million to create.

Normally, financial gains like the ones presented in the trial are not made public but, the numbers were revealed to the court as part of the copyright case presented by the Gaye family. The Gayes are also going after money made by Thicke from touring, which came out to about $11 million attributable to the success of "Blurred Lines." An accountant for the Gaye family has also testified that the publishing revenue for the hit song is a little over $8 million. The Gayes also contend that another Thicke Song, "Love After War," is a ripoff of Marvin Gaye's "After the Dance" and brought in just under $900,000 in profits.

In October of 2014, a judge declared that the Gaye family, "made a sufficient showing that elements of 'Blurred Lines' may be substantially similar to protected, original elements of [Marvin Gaye's] 'Got to Give It Up.' Defendants have identified these with particularity for purposes of analytic dissection."

Filed Under: Marvin Gaye, Robin Thicke, T.I. Pharrell

Categories: News