BTS’s agency has denied allegations that the group’s hit single “Swim” copied an unreleased song after three US songwriters filed a copyright lawsuit in a California federal court.
The lawsuit was filed on 8 July in the US district court for the central district of California by Steve Cooper, Jon Sandler, and Greylyn Johnson.
According to the complaint, first reported by Billboard, the three songwriters allege that “Swim”, the lead single from BTS’s fifth studio album Arirang, copied substantial elements of an unpublished demo they had written under the same title.
The complaint names Hybe, Hybe America, Big Hit Music and several of the song’s credited writers, including Ryan Tedder, as defendants. Hybe is the South Korean entertainment company that owns Big Hit Music, the record label and management agency behind BTS.
The band, composed of RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook, had been on hiatus since 2022, but returned in March 2026 with their new album Arirang. They are currently on their world tour, their first since completing South Korea’s mandatory military service and their first full-group tour in almost four years.
BTS and its members are not named in the lawsuit, despite frontman RM receiving a songwriting credit on the track.
Responding to the lawsuit on Friday, Big Hit Music rejected the allegations and said it would contest them through the courts.
“The lawsuit contains only the plaintiffs’ unilateral claims,” the agency said in a statement to Osen. “We clearly maintain that ‘Swim’ is an independent, original work. We will respond firmly through the legal process.”
According to the complaint, Cooper, Sandler, and Johnson began working on their version of “Swim,” in early 2025 and completed a demo in March that year. They have alleged that they circulated the recording to music industry contacts from March 2025 onwards, including executives at Artist Publishing Group (APG), an independent music publishing company that is also named as a defendant.
A central issue in the case is whether the writers behind BTS’s “Swim” had access to the plaintiffs’ demo before writing their own song. The complaint has alleged that APG executives listened to the demo and shared it with others, including some of the songwriters who later worked on BTS’s track.
Listening records from the music-sharing platform Disco were attached to the lawsuit and showed that APG officials had accessed the demo, according to a Chosun report.
To support their allegations, the three songwriters commissioned musicologist Alexander Stewart to compare the two songs. According to the complaint, Stewart concluded that they shared similarities in “the signature phrase (or ‘hook’) referencing the title, unusual harmonies, textures, and rhythmic and lyrical elements”.
Stewart has previously served as an expert witness for plaintiffs in several high-profile music copyright disputes, including the lawsuit alleging that Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud” copied Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On” and the long-running case claiming Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” borrowed from the band Spirit’s instrumental “Taurus”.
Both lawsuits ultimately failed, with juries rejecting the plagiarism claims.
According to Billboard, Cooper, Sandler, and Johnson attempted to resolve the dispute before filing the lawsuit by contacting Hybe and the other defendants. The complaint states that those efforts were unsuccessful because the defendants “either did not respond or were unable to reach a resolution with Plaintiffs, necessitating the filing of this action”.
The three songwriters are seeking damages, a share of the profits generated by “SWIM” and a court order preventing its further use. Alternatively, they have asked the court to recognise them as co-writers of the song and grant them a share of its copyright and royalties.
The K-pop group performed two sold-out shows in Munich over the weekend and are due to play two concerts at Stade de France in Saint-Denis, outside Paris, on 17 and 18 July before the tour heads to North America.
BTS’s forthcoming Chilean leg of the tour also recently became the subject of controversy after the Chilean government initially refused permission for three October concerts at Santiago’s Estadio Nacional, saying the promoter had sold tickets before securing approval to use the venue.
Authorities later said they were working to resolve the dispute after major protests from fans.
