LinuxMusicians

I'm planning to transcribe a song ('low battery' by jaga jazzist) and would like to share the result.

I'd say the perfect way to present this online would be to sync it up to the official recording from a legitimate source like Spotify.

Anyone aware of projects that support something in that direction? Any open source bits and pieces I could assemble into this with some programming?

transcribe in musescore
upload to musescore.org
export to youtube (this is a feauture of musescore.org website)
add you're own audio on the export page

rghvdberg wrote:transcribe in musescore
upload to musescore.org
export to youtube (this is a feauture of musescore.org website)
add you're own audio on the export page

Thanks for the pointer! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eya3eQf ... e=youtu.be looks fantastic, seems to be exactly what I was looking for!

However, I'm not sure I can legally do this, as a transcription will probably be a 'derived work' of the original piece. I think sharing a transcription with appropriate attribution is pretty much OK, but MuseScore.com also asks me to give them a "worldwide, irrevocable, royalty-free, perpetual license to use any Material posted or used by such User on the Website, for any purpose or function" (https://musescore.com/legal/terms). I don't think I'm entitled to grant them that...

raboof wrote:not sure I can legally do this

Probably not.

as a transcription will probably be a 'derived work' of the original piece.

More than that, if the artist has any kind of distribution deal with some third party, most likely that deal includes publishing and performance rights. That means that if you publically play/perform the artist's song, or make a public transcription of it (sheet music, midi file, your own recorded rendition), then you're supposed to pay a licensing fee to the party who owns the publishing and performance rights.

Most rights holders don't collect the fees themselves. Instead, they typically hire one of two companies that specialize in collecting those fees. These companies are ASCAP and BMI. They are extremely litiguous, and are two of the biggest forces behind the RIAA. Some of the operations that they have sent cease and desist letters to include:

1) Venues that have live music, or play music over a P.A. (ie, DJ) but haven't paid a "performance fee" that covers any/all music licensed by ASCAP/BMI. (A BMI rep once walked into a small bar in a small town where I was performing, and demanded the bar owner show the proper BMI paperwork for live performance. The owner couldn't, and I had to stop performing immediately.)

2) Entities (including Web sites) that have recordings, lyrics, or sheet music of licensed works, but haven't paid the distribution fees for those works.

Look through your CD collection for the words "licensed by ASCAP/BMI". They're all over everything. And they'll protect that at any cost.

j_e_f_f_g wrote:if you publically play/perform the artist's song, or make a public transcription of it (sheet music, midi file, your own recorded rendition), then you're supposed to pay a licensing fee to the party who owns the publishing (..) rights.

Jup, you're right...

j_e_f_f_g wrote:Most rights holders don't collect the fees themselves. Instead, they typically hire one of two companies that specialize in collecting those fees (...) They are extremely litiguous (...) They're all over everything. And they'll protect that at any cost.

You might be overstating things, given the number of websites publishing 'guitar tabs', lyrics etc.

I'd personally probably feel fine publishing a transcription (for free, with proper attribution): even though it's a minor infringement, it seems unlikely that someone would actually come after me. Uploading it to musescore.com and granting them all kinds of rights (that aren't mine to grant) is a step further though.

Internet is full of copyright infringement because copyright is full of bs.

j_e_f_f_g wrote:Most rights holders don't collect the fees themselves. Instead, they typically hire one of two companies that specialize in collecting those fees. These companies are ASCAP and BMI. They are extremely litiguous, and are two of the biggest forces behind the RIAA. Some of the operations that they have sent cease and desist letters to include:

1) Venues that have live music, or play music over a P.A. (ie, DJ) but haven't paid a "performance fee" that covers any/all music licensed by ASCAP/BMI. (A BMI rep once walked into a small bar in a small town where I was performing, and demanded the bar owner show the proper BMI paperwork for live performance. The owner couldn't, and I had to stop performing immediately.)

Not long ago a representative from Hal Leonard shut down the local high school choir (an award-winning group) because he claimed the school hadn't ponied up the required licensing fees. I learned from the some of the participants that the rep was extremely aggressive and hostile towards the school admins. He made up amounts of money due the HL agency that varied from day to day, he called the choir director at home and made threats about shutting down the choir, etc ad nauseum. In the end the school bargained for time to pay the fees, dropped the offending music from the program (a neat way of putting Hal Leonard in the position of telling the composer that their efforts at enforcement ensured that the composer's music wouldn't be played). The kids were severely disappointed, they'd practiced the piece for a nationals competition and felt shafted by the whole affair. Incidentally, the dropped song was replaced by an original composition by Scott Lavender, a local musician who made good (he's Johnny Mathis's music director).

In the end the only thing Hal Leonard did - besides making sure that the HL-protected composer's music didn't get played - was make me and many others around here despise Hal Leonard and their goons. I won't buy anything published by them now and I suggest to my students that they avoid purchasing HL products if they can find another vendor.

On another note: Many moons ago I was on the road, playing a club in Michigan where the band got carded by the local union rep. We got shut down because my card was out of date. Had to drive back to Ohio in a snow storm during which my car was totalled.

The music business is filled with good folks. However, I understand that at some recording arts schools the book "Hit Men" is required reading. When you're going to work in the big-money music world you need to know that you'll possibly be rubbing elbows with some real scum who happen to have a lot more money and power than you do.

Look through your CD collection for the words "licensed by ASCAP/BMI". They're all over everything. And they'll protect that at any cost.

"Every penny we collect, less operating expenses, is distributed to our members." Right-o, and just like too many other agencies I'll bet those operating expenses cover some fine vacations and prime real estate.

Best,

dp