Pretty soon, Justin Bieber may be missing more than someone’s body. He could be missing some cash money. That will be the case if Casey Dienel is successful in her law suit against the Biebs and Skrillex. At issue is a brief, probably five to ten second “sample” of what maybe…kinda… could be similar to… sorta kinda… if you squint your ears about 90% to the left (I know you can’t squint your ears) sounds like “Ring the Bell” from Dienel’s band White Hinterland. This alleged sample is prominent in the intro to Bieber’s 2015 hit song, “Sorry.” Before we get too far into this … check out the sounds and decide what sounds like what.

“Sorry” – Justin Bieber | “Ring the Bell” – White Hinterland

So if you ask me, there are marked differences between “Ring the Bell” and “Sorry.” Hinterland’s vocal riff sounds melodic in an undulating way, and doesn’t necessarily sound like a noise made by a person (hopefully that made sense). Bieber’s intro into “Sorry” sounds breathy and more of an “oohooh” type of modulated lyric. You can certainly hear the breathy quality at the end of the sound. If I were to judge the two side by side – at a tacit glance, they sound pretty similar. But if you listen to them in an isolated context, you can definitely pick out the differences.

We also need to think about why a multi-million album seller would use a sample of a virtually unknown individual or group on a track. Especially, when the duo of Bieber and Skrillex have already been known to use Justin’s own voice in a song. In 2015’s “Where are U Now,” Skrillex and Diplo use Justin’s vocals and edits of those vocals throughout the song. As New York Times writer Jon Pareles noted, “They reversed the original order of the verses. They took the lone a cappella vocal track they had from Mr. Bieber, cut it to stutter certain words in the introduction, and pitched it higher and lower in various parts of the song…” So if it is already a style that Skrillex and Bieber are known to have used, I don’t see why they would use a sample from Hinterland.

YouTube user Shawn Tewes had an interesting take on the subject as well. Check his video out here.

All of that being said. What is the big deal? I get it, credit would be due. If this truly was a sample of White Hinterland’s song, it meets the requirements to require permissions and crediting the original artist (see this page from nolo.com). But the sample is so short, and doesn’t make up a huge or significant portion of the song. It’s an intro that is perhaps repeated once or twice elsewhere in the track. But we will probably see Bieber and Dienel come to some sort of settlement to make all of this “go away.”

More tomorrow on Everyday BRAND.