Photo Credit: NewJeans (@newjeans_official / Instagram)
The members of NewJeans, as well as their label partners Ador and Hybe, are being sued for copyright infringement over the group’s hit “How Sweet”.
A group of four songwriters is suing the members of K-pop girl group NewJeans, as well as their label partners Ador and Hybe, alleging the group’s 2024 hit “How Sweet” infringes on their copyright for a song they say is similar.
Filed on Thursday (May 7) in the United States, the lawsuit alleges copyright infringement over the song “How Sweet,” which NewJeans released in May 2024 and which peaked at #15 on the Billboard Global 200. Four songwriters claim that the track copied key elements from a demo they submitted during the songwriting process.
According to the filing, songwriter Audrey Armacost was sent an instrumental track by her publisher in January 2024 and invited to submit lyrics and melody for consideration by NewJeans and their team. Armacost met with three other writers, Aidan Rodriguez, Adam Gokcebay, and Michael Campanelli; together, the four say they wrote and recorded a track called “One of a Kind” over the instrumental.
The four writers claim they submitted “One of a Kind” to NewJeans, but were told it was not selected. But when “How Sweet” was released just four months later, the writers say the song’s first verse was “quantitatively and qualitatively similar” to the first verse in “One of a Kind.”
The writers allege that Hybe, Ador, the members of NewJeans, and other collaborators and distributors violated their rights by failing to license their original demo. Their lawsuit seeks a cut of the royalties from the success of “How Sweet.”
Over the weekend, Ador released a statement: “We confirmed with BANA (Beasts and Natives Alike), which mainly oversaw the song’s composition and production, that no form of copying or infringement took place. Based on BANA’s confirmation, Ador and the NewJeans members will respond accordingly through the legal process.”
The copyright infringement suit comes amid the ongoing back and forth between members of NewJeans and Ador, following the group’s move to leave the label after the ousting of their mentor, former CEO Min Hee-jin.
