[Musicians] A question about sharing music notation online

[Sarah Gowan]

Hi Emily-

I’m the curator of the SPUDS online tune library - I’m so happy to hear other groups find our site useful! It’s my policy to ask composers (if known) if we have permission to post their tunes. Some, like Bob McQuillen, gave us free reign to arrange them how we wish and freely post any of their tunes. Others prefer only certain tunes or ask that we include contact and licensing information. Beware that trad tunes aren’t necessarily exempt. Some people are very proprietary about their arrangements. I removed a version of a traditional tune from one of my sites because a musician recognized his arrangement and wanted credit. I didn’t get it from his book, but also didn’t want the hassle, so it was easier to simply take it down and use a different version.

If there are a hundred versions of a tune online already, I generally don’t get too anxious about reposting. If there are none or maybe one, I definitely ask. You can’t assume that because one site has posted them, that it’s ok for you to do the same. Some groups, like Princeton, avoid copyright problems by password-protecting access to their files so only group members can use them. They still ask composers if it’s ok to post, though.

From the composer side - I’ve had people post some of my compositions and the only time I get annoyed is when they don’t include my name or try to sell them. (Yes that really happened). But I make most of my tunes freely available online anyway and I’m not trying to make a living as a musician.

Hope this is helpful,

Sarah
https://www.thursdaycontra.com/~spuds/TuneLinks.html

> On Oct 30, 2017, at 10:49 AM, Emily Addison via Musicians <musicians at lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
> 
> Hi All,
> 
> A question for you about general etiquette on posting recently composed tunes (as in last 20-30yrs).
> 
> I've seen MANY MANY recently composed tunes online through websites like The Session but also contra websites too.  Often these are posted by someone other than the composer and it's not listed as to whether they have permission to post.
> 
> Here in Ottawa, our community band (we're not pros and play almost all our gigs for free.), we're working on learning a varied contra music repertoire for dancing.  In fact, our community band is called 'Stolen Goods' as we're about learning from others.
> 
> I've been thinking that it would be nice to post our sets online as part of the wider sharing so that others can benefit... just like we've benefited from looking at what others (like SPUDS) have posted.
> 
> What's the etiquette here?
> 
> For instance, we play a handful of Keith Murphy tunes and he's got books.  And we have Larry Unger and others too...
> 
> If we post a few is that ok?  Seems that's what others do, especially in irish and quebecois traditions but I'm just not sure as some of the contra musicians have tune books.  Could refer to a few tune books.
> 
> Also, we've written out a few sets from other bands (e.g., one from Wild Asparagus) as we're trying to learn from their groove/chord lines etc. and we are just a local learning band that plays for 20 dancers.   If we only have 1-2 from a particular band, are those ok to post?
> 
> Looking for your thoughts!
> 
> By no means do I need to post of course... ... .just interested in giving back to the wider community what we've been learning over the last number of years.
> 
> With thanks :)
> Emily Addison in Ottawa
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