Post Malone settles ‘Circles’ lawsuit minutes before trial beginning

nme.com:

Post Malone has settled a songwriting lawsuit relating to his 2019 song ‘Circles’, minutes before it was scheduled to reach a jury trial.Musician Tyler Armes had claimed that he had written the guitar melody and keyboard chords on Malone’s hit song and gave input to what became the bassline in a studio session in August 2018. “I was beside him giving input – I was not just someone hanging out in the room, I’m a writer/producer in the room with two other writer/producers working on a song,” Armes alleged.After reaching out to producer Frank Dukes once the song was released, Armes said he was offered a five per cent share of publishing royalties.

He claimed Malone’s manager shut down negotiations for a higher share.Armes then sued Malone in 2020, arguing that he should be credited as a co-writer on the song and receive retroactive and ongoing royalties from it.

Malone then countersued, commenting in his suit: “It is an age-old story in the music business that when a song earns the type of runaway success that ‘Circles’ has garnered, an individual will come out of the woodwork, falsely claim to take credit for the song, and demand unwarranted and unearned windfall profits from the song.”Malone was expected to testify during the four-day trial, but a settlement was reached as the jury members were being selected.

Terms of the settlement have not been disclosed. Neither party’s lawyers responded to requests for comments sent by The Hollywood Reporter.Elsewhere, Post Malone is set to return to the UK for a string of live dates in May as part of his ‘Twelve Carat Tour’.