| Author | Topic | | AnonJr
Absent-minded Webmaster
USA
621 Posts |  Posted - 05 Feb 2006 : 11:11:22 
| I was looking for some bass tab to learn and one of the sites I came across had a notice up stating:
quote:
Due to recent news we will no longer be offering tabulature for download.
My problem is the same as quoted in the story, what about when there are no other alternatives? Better Than Ezra's official book can't be found for love or money, but heaven forbid I go find someone's interpretation of it. 
So I ask, has this gone too far? |
There's no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you.
- Will Rogers |
| AXEMAN2415
Guitar Weenie
USA
740 Posts | Posted - 05 Feb 2006 : 14:21:48
| | Oops! |
"C'mon Dave, Gimme a break!" |
Edited by - AXEMAN2415 on 05 Feb 2006 14:33:44 |  |
| AXEMAN2415
Guitar Weenie
USA
740 Posts | Posted - 05 Feb 2006 : 14:23:29
| | Anon, it is somewhat ironic that you would pose such a question on a Christian musicians website.You would think that I view this issue the same way as the music publishers do, but I am afraid that I do not.
As a Christian musician, I have two stirkes against me, because #1: I do not have any kind of distribution support, and #2: as a Christian musician, I do not necessarily have mass popular support.So ANY hit that I take, with regard to artistic compensation is potentially "career" threatening.
However, I personally believe that this issue is not as severe or income damaging as the RIAA or the MPA would lead us to believe.And I might add that the music industry itself has a tainted history, with regard to taking advantage of artists work. Just ask any surviving Blues musician from the 30's, 40's, and 50's.To me, they (the industry) sometimes talk on the other side of thier faces.
With regards to the specific article that you cited, Anon, the music tablature issue is somewhat seperate. I, as a guitar player, have, and will continue, to use printed tablature as study and research material to develope my musicianship. Tablature is NOT recorded music.Well, it is "recorded" in manuscripted form, but it is not the music. It is the printed representation of the recorded work. And mind you, tablature has been quite inaccurate, or at least, subjective in it's interpretations. Find three copies of transcriptions of Van Halen's "Eruption", and you will find three different interpretations of how to play the darn thing.My question then becomes, "Which copy is the stolen version?"
Truth be told, there are only 12 notes in western music. How you rearrange them is your concern.Interestingly enough, if you study musical forms, there are relatively few original ideas.And the ones that are original, it is kind of difficult to diffuse the originator from the work. I mean, if I sang "I...wanna rock'n'roll all night, and party everyday!" Tell me who would believe that I wrote that? Who out there does NOT know who wrote that song? Me singing that song, or even reprinting the lyrics, does not constitute theft, because only the original artist is recognized as the author, and thereby gets the credit due them.
Stepping into a slight side issue, many of the artists (including the two I sourced earlier, Van Halen and, you guessed it, KISS)started thier careers as club acts, by doing cover songs.That meant that they had to play what was popular at the time to get gigs.And the patron saints of defying the evil Napster, namely Metallica, ALSO played tons of covers during thier club days. And they are even proud of the fact that they used obscure tunes by obscure European metal acts, and claim them as thier own compositions.
Club owners refused to book acts that would not play certain things, because then club customers would not hear anything familiar, and go elsewhere.Not good for the old bar tab.
At any rate, could the idea of playing cover tunes be considered "stealing." Well, the answer would have to be "Yes", all things being equal. Yet playing covers is a time honored practice, used for honing professional playing skills. Every major (or even minor) artist has done the cover scene in some fashion, either in club gigs, or even High School talent contests.Is that stealing as well? Well if it is, then we all have some serious rethinking to do.I sincerely doubt that when a teenage cover band gets up in the High School auditorium to do a bad rendition of Ozzy's "Crazy Train" , school officials and students have paid for the use of that material. And you know what? Ozzy, or anyone else for that matter, could care less. It is called "Payin' your Dues."
Interestingly enough, the artist and /or composer of the works used get publicity and advertisement for thier "product" that THEY don't pay for, either.Consequently, I have bought albums throughout the years, going from 8-track (yeah,yeah, here come the age jokes, ad nauseum) to cassette, to CD, all on the strength of the material that I heard originally. I may have originally heard a song on a bootleg tape, but I loved it so much that I went and bought the album (in whatever format available)because I had to have that song or album. So in reality, that was free advertisement that hooked me into purchasing a product, continually, through four different formats and 20 some years.There has been no lost revenue on the artist's part.
I must admit that I don't particularly want to have people copy my works either. But there is a difference between copying a CD/ Cassette of already recorded music (or playing said material in a cover situation)for the express purpose of hearing that artist's work, and copying another atrist's work and claiming it as your own work, and taking the credit and the ensuing revenue for it.I think that is where the problem lies.
My band, Jesus Joshua 24:15, have a song called "Revelation 5:9 (Worthy)" off of our first album, "The Time Of My Return." That was a song that one of our friends in another NC city heard and loved. They asked us if they could play it in thier set. B. Shep (Drummer and composer of "Worthy") told them that they could as long as they gave us credit for it onstage. That was quite honorable. Did we lose potential revenue by doing that? Well, probably. But maybe we gained more than in potential album sales by our friends playing our song. It's anybodies guess, but I don't think we lost anything.
I hope I didn't wander too far from the initial question, but I seem to be the only one talking, so...
|
"C'mon Dave, Gimme a break!" |
Edited by - AXEMAN2415 on 05 Feb 2006 14:37:16 | |
| AnonJr
Absent-minded Webmaster
USA
621 Posts | Posted - 06 Feb 2006 : 18:35:31
| No, you didn't wander too far.
I find it telling that the RIAA and the "Publishing Industry" are the ones complaining loudest...
I'd like to add that I was looking for some riffs on the Guitar Player website, and I saw this notice: quote:
Where’s the Sheet Music?!
Much of the sheet music that Guitar Player publishes is copyrighted material, licensed from the artists to run only in the printed version of the magazine. Guitar Player continues to offer the explanatory text of these lessons online, but in order to get the complete song transcriptions and other bits of licensed sheet music, you need to have a copy of the magazine.
Interesting indeed.
Before I go too much further into my thoughts (such as they are), I'd like to hear some other opinions. |
There's no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you.
- Will Rogers | |
| | | Topic | |
 |
Media
