Mattie Music Group Sues Capitol Records and Sony Over Olivia Dean Track
Olivia Dean’s song “I’ve Seen It,” featured on her 2025 album The Art of Loving, has been accused of plagiarizing the Bill Withers classic “Just the Two of Us.” The copyright infringement lawsuit, filed on Thursday in US federal court in Los Angeles by the Mattie Music Group, names record labels and publishers as defendants while omitting Dean and her co-writers.
The Bottom Line
- The Allegation: Mattie Music Group alleges that “I’ve Seen It” copies substantial musical elements, including the protectable melody, of the 1981 Bill Withers and Grover Washington Jr. track “Just the Two of Us.”
- The Defendants: The federal lawsuit targets Universal Music Group’s Capitol Records, Sony Music Publishing, and Kobalt Music Publishing America, rather than Olivia Dean or co-writers Bastian Langebaek and Max Wolfgang.
- The Evidence: The plaintiff hired musicologist Alexander Stewart, who concluded the two tracks contain striking similarities that rule out independent creation or coincidence.
Federal Court Filing Details Copyright Infringement Claims
The copyright infringement lawsuit was filed on Thursday in US federal court in Los Angeles by the Mattie Music Group, the publisher that administers the back catalog of the late Bill Withers. The legal action centers on “I’ve Seen It,” a track on Olivia Dean’s album The Art of Loving, which was released in September 2025.
The lawsuit states that the two works share “repeated copying of the distinctively protectable melody.” To support the allegation, Mattie Music Group retained musicologist Alexander Stewart to conduct a formal comparison. The Withers classic previously reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and won the 1981 Grammy Award for Best R&B Song, later enjoying a resurgence on the TikTok social media platform. The track was written by the late Withers, Ralph MacDonald, and William Salter.
Publishers and Labels Named While Writers Excluded From Lawsuit
While the lawsuit takes direct aim at the commercial exploitation of the track, it notably excludes the songwriters from its list of defendants. Rolling Stone reported that the seven-page complaint does not name Olivia Dean, 27, nor her co-writers Bastian Langebaek and Max Wolfgang. Dean won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in February, and her second studio album reached No. 3 on the Billboard 200 in January, spending 52 weeks and counting on the album chart after being named Billboard’s Rookie of the Year in 2025.
Instead of targeting the artists directly, Mattie Music Group named corporate entities as defendants. These include Sony Music Publishing, Universal Music Group’s Capitol Records, and Kobalt Music Publishing America, which publishes Wolfgang. Mattie Music Group does business as Bleunig Music and is run by Marcia Johnson, the widow of Bill Withers, administering the estate named after the singer’s late mother, Mattie. Withers, a three-time Grammy winner originally from Slab Fork, West Virginia, passed away in Los Angeles at age 81 in March 2020.
| Case Detail | Plaintiff Information | Defendant Information |
|---|---|---|
| Filing Court | US Federal Court, Los Angeles | Capitol Records, Sony Music Publishing, Kobalt Music Publishing America |
| Accused Track | “I’ve Seen It” by Olivia Dean (2025) | Writers (Dean, Langebaek, Wolfgang) not named as defendants |
| Original Work | “Just the Two of Us” by Bill Withers & Grover Washington Jr. (1981) | Mattie Music Group administers the Withers estate |
Prior Notice and Demands for Permanent Injunction
Legal friction between the parties began weeks before the formal court filing. The plaintiff stated that written notice identifying the registration, the accused composition, and the specific musical similarities was provided to each defendant on August 17, 2026. Despite this warning, the lawsuit alleges that the defendants “continued reproducing, distributing, licensing, publicly performing and commercially exploiting” the track.
Alongside financial damages to be decided at trial, the lawsuit seeks a permanent injunction to restrain the defendants from ongoing acts of copyright infringement. Representatives for Olivia Dean, Capitol Records, and Kobalt did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Guardian, while a Kobalt representative declined to comment to Billboard.
