[Musicians] Question About Sharing Music Notation
songer at portcoll.com
songer at portcoll.com
Mon Oct 30 10:39:06 PDT 2017
Hi All--
I have thought about this issue a lot. As David writes below, most composers
are eager to have their music spread around and played--even those who have
gone on to license their tunes through the various licensing organizations.
However, some composers do not own the copyrights to their own tunes
(especially in Scotland, where it is common for a music publisher to hold
the copyright or in cases where the composer is deceased and the copyright
is owned by the estate). And once in a while, a composer will not want
his/her music posted online. Publishing companies are less likely to grant
permission even though the tune in question might be easily found elsewhere
on the web. Some composers want any publication of their tune to be exactly
as they wrote it, not a particular version someone is playing.
I do post tunes under copyright on websites but with limitations. As
director of the Portland Megaband, I use the Megaband website to post the
music that band members will be working on. Much of this is recent music.
But the part of that site that contains the music is password
protected--only available to current band members. We change the password
every year. (I know of several other groups that use DropBox for this same
purpose.) This is only scant protection for copyright holders because once
someone has a music file in pdf format, it can go anywhere very easily. But
it is better than having the music available for the world to download. In
some cases, I contact the composer before we post to the Megaband site. If I
have made any substantial changes to the tune, such as changing the key, or
in once case the meter, I always contact the composer before using the tune
in the Megaband. So far, everyone has given permission.
I also post tunes on the Portland Collection website (am WAY behind in that
endeavor). Those tunes are available to everyone without limitation. In the
case of tunes under copyright, I obtain the composer's permission before
posting. If I were ever to post an arrangement of a tune specific to a
band/recording, I would obtain permission from the artists before posting on
the Portland Collection site. These extra steps make me feel better about
posting music on the web.
Sue Songer
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2017 11:45:56 -0400
From: David A Kaynor <davidkaynor at mac.com>
To: A musician's discussion list <musicians at sharedweight.net>
Subject: Re: [Musicians] A question about sharing music notation
online
Message-ID: <37E38D07-380D-40A6-96A9-6057E6F16465 at mac.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
There are a lot of opinions and wishes out there. Here are mine, about
publishing transcriptions of my compositions:
I wish more people liked and played my tunes!
I?d love to have transcriptions of my tunes out in the realms of folk and
contra dance music. If my name, as composer, is on the transcriptions,
GREAT! If not ? oh, well.
It?s at least possible that someone with questionable taste (not to mention
questionable values) might claim composership of something I made up, but
it?s not keeping me awake at night. For one thing, documentation exists for
everything I?ve composed. For another, even if someone did succeed in
?stealing? composership of something I made up, the people who really matter
to me know the score, as it were.
Except for The Montague Processional, none of my tunes are licensed, thus
can be played in venues which don?t purchase licenses from ASCAP and BMI.
Unless I manage to compose some tunes which more people find more
interesting, all of the above is kind of moot ?
David Kaynor
> 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
> _______________________________________________
> Musicians mailing list
> Musicians at lists.sharedweight.net
> http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/musicians-sharedweight.net
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2017 11:48:18 -0400
From: Sarah Gowan <ladysmyth at rcn.com>
To: Emily Addison <emilyladdison at gmail.com>
Cc: musicians at sharedweight.net
Subject: Re: [Musicians] A question about sharing music notation
online
Message-ID: <A8B63A9B-6ADF-4FC4-AE0F-A78588652135 at rcn.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
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
> _______________________________________________
> Musicians mailing list
> Musicians at lists.sharedweight.net
> http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/musicians-sharedweight.net
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Message: 3
Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2017 10:53:11 -0500
From: Emily Addison <emilyladdison at gmail.com>
To: Sarah Gowan <ladysmyth at rcn.com>, musicians at sharedweight.net
Subject: Re: [Musicians] A question about sharing music notation
online
Message-ID:
<CAD7WKUUXUv0w7U3pAoAsGWkU6s11O3gPTT53ibcvvfZxZTSwUg at mail.gmail.com>
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Hi Sarah,
This is VERY helpful information and sounds like a great way to proceed!
BTW - SPUDS is one of my very favourite places to go look for new material
for our community band... we love experimenting and reaching ever further
and without the internet (and my buying MANY MANY MANY tune books), it would
be hard to do that as we're relatively isolated up here in Ottawa.
Thanks :)
Emily
On Mon, Oct 30, 2017 at 10:48 AM, Sarah Gowan <ladysmyth at rcn.com> wrote:
> 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
>
> _______________________________________________
> Musicians mailing list
> Musicians at lists.sharedweight.net
> http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/musicians-sharedweight.net
>
>
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