BTS' 'Butter' Has No Copyright Issues: Big Hit Music

Amid plagiarism rumors, Big Hit Music has maintained that no copyright breach was committed in connection with BTS' smash hit "Butter."

The music label released a statement Thursday to address the claims that have taken the internet by storm these past few days.

"It has been confirmed that there are no copyright issues regarding 'Butter.' It is a song that was finalized and released after undergoing a process of confirming with all songwriters that there are no issues with the song, and there are also no issues currently regarding the song's rights," Big Hit Music, the management company behind BTS, said as per Soompi.

The issue came up when Dutch DJ and composer Luca Debonaire shared the chorus of his March 2020 track titled "You Got Me Down" on his personal social media page. According to Debonaire, he purchased the topline or the melody of the song from Sebastian Garcia in 2019.

Garcia is credited as one of the songwriters of "Butter," The Korea Herald said in a report.

Netizens quickly raised suspicions of potential copyright issues with Garcia for having the same topline in the two songs.

But in the statement, Big Hit Music dispelled the rumors and clarified that the musical rights still belonged to "Butter."

"However, we are aware of the claim that there is an issue regarding copyrights, but even if that is the case, the musical rights still belong to 'Butter,'" Big Hit Music emphasized.

Earlier this week, netizens also pointed out the strong similarity between the soundtrack of the 1992 Konami game "Monster in My Pocket" and "Butter."

Netizens claimed that the song "Towering Catastrophe" for the fourth stage of the Nintendo game definitely sounded like "Butter."

In response to the issue, "Monster in My Pocket" songwriter Kozo Nakamura wrote on his blog that he was surprised by netizens' reactions to the song. Nakamura admitted that although he knew BTS, he wasn't familiar with "Butter." According to him, he just learned about it after reading an article comparing the song to this work.

Nakamura went on to explain that while the beats of the two tracks were almost identical, "Butter" wasn't a sampling of "Towering Catastrophe."

"Butter" is currently placed at No. 7 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It stayed on the chart's summit for seven weeks before being replaced by BTS' latest single, "Permission to Dance."