Jay-Z settles copyright dispute with Swiss musician

US artist Jay-Z has reportedly settled a copyright dispute with a Swiss musician after agreeing to split the royalties to his 2013 song Versus.

The agreement, confirmed last week, means that Jay-Z, real name Shawn Carter, will share half of the royalties from the song with classical musician Bruno Spoerri.

Versus appeared on Jay-Z’s 2013 album Magna Carta Holy Grail. The album sold more than 500,000 copies in the first week of its release in the US.

The dispute started in 2013 when record company Finders Keepers, which produces the work by Spoerri, contacted Jay-Z and music producer Timbaland, whose company produced the album, about the use of an instrumental sample used in the song.

Finders Keepers claimed the song borrowed a sample from Spoerri’s track On The Way, which was released in 1978.

The dispute had been kept away from the public until Spoerri broke his silence last year, shortly after Jay-Z won a Grammy Award in January 2014.

He told news website swissinfo.ch that “in a way I’m flattered that a relatively young rapper takes a sample from an old man, a sample that is about 35 years old.

“On the other hand, I’m furious because it would have been so simple to clear the sample. All it would have needed was a call or an email to the company and I think it would have been relatively cheap,” he added.

The settlement follows another music copyright dispute that ended last week. A US court awarded the family of Marvin Gaye more than $7 million in damages following its high-profile dispute with singers Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams, who wrote the hit song Blurred Lines.

That dispute centred on the claim by the Gaye family that Williams's and Thicke’s song infringed the copyright to Gaye’s 1977 hit Got To Give It Up.

Neither Finders Keepers nor Spoerri responded to a request for comment. Jay-Z could not be reached for comment.