The essay explores some recent controversies in British music copyright through the evolving technologies used to perform or play music in the courtroom. Whilst the conceptual tension between cases has caused doctrinal anxiety about the effect of popular music in copyright, the essay contends that the recent stream of music copyright cases can be considered from a historical perspective, taking into account the tools, materials and experts as they featured in court. In doing so, the essay connects a history of legal expertise to the emergence of new technologies whilst arguing that legal knowledge about music copyright was, in fact, stabilized in the courtroom.