Tag: copyright
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Sample replays… #arp #sampling
Sample replays and their implications for producers and listeners Justin Morey, Leeds Beckett University ABSTRACT: There is evidence that the cost of clearing the recording copyright of a sample (the master clearance) has risen significantly in the last 20 years (see, for example: McLeod and Di Cola, 2013; Morey, 2014), with one result being the…
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Plagiarism: Musicology’s Proof of the Pudding #arp #iaspm
Franco Fabbri, University of Milan and Conservatorio ‘A.Boito’, Parma Our opening keynote for the conference is the much-loved Franco Fabbri, a much-celebrated musician, educator and musicologist. I was particularly interested to hear this one, because Franco is talking about Forensic Musicology, and with a particular focus on Italian case law. Here’s my live-blog of his…
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New Music Ecosystem 2018 conference – live blog
No, the other Washington. I’m in Seattle at the New Music Ecosystem conference, organised by the University of Washington Law School. It’s a gathering of music and law professionals, discussing the future of creators’ compensation, tech/music innovation, and copyright reform. [Grammar folks – I’ve now been in the USA for long enough, and had Oxford…
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Did Lana Del Rey copy Radiohead?
This week, Lana Del Rey stated that she is being sued for copying Radiohead’s 1992 song Creep in her 2017 release, Get Free. It’s true about the lawsuit. Although I know my song wasn’t inspired by Creep, Radiohead feel it was and want 100% of the publishing – I offered up to 40 over the last few…
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Public Interest in Collective Licensing #iaspm2017
Richard Osborne, University of Middlesex (UK) ‘Where is the Public Interest in Collective Licensing?’ ABSTRACT: In 1841, Lord Macaulay argued that copyright ‘produces all the effects which … mankind attributes to monopoly … to make articles scarce, to make them dear, and to make them bad’. Popular music has witnessed the reverse. The music industries’…
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Close to the Edge: investigating songwriting’s ‘plagiarism threshold’
Joe Bennett, Boston Conservatory at Berklee [Presented at IASPM 2017, 26 June 2017] Here is the abstract, with references, for the academic paper I presented at the IASPM 2017 conference in Kassel, Germany. At the moment it’s just abstract, slides and references. If it ever turns into a full paper I’ll upload it to this…
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Wayfair, you’ve got just the soundalikes I need
Friends, musicians and soundmen (and women) – lend me your ears. Here are some Wayfair TV commercials in a playlist – let me know (Twitter @joebennettmusic) what songs you think they’re using as a template for the music. Disclosure – this is for academic research, not copyright/client work. [Health warning – these ads have a…
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![[ABSTRACT] Appropriation and Copyrightability in Music Copyright](https://joebennett.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/hqdefault.jpg?w=480)
[ABSTRACT] Appropriation and Copyrightability in Music Copyright
I Hate These Blurred Lines: Wrongful Appropriation and Copyrightability in Music Copyright Academic/copyright post: here’s an abstract (pdf) of a paper that I’ll be presenting with Prof Wendy Gordon next week at Boston University Law School. This is based in part on an earlier paper that we presented at the Art of Record Production Conference in…
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Berklee’s Fair Music report
My first full session today at the CMS conference is presented by Berklee faculty members Peter Alhadeff and Luiz Augusto Buff. They are, today, analysing and critiquing Berklee’s Fair Music Report. Peter begins with some caveats; he comments that the report deals particularly with the recording industry (and does not cover other music industries – e.g. live…
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What exactly did ‘Stairway to Heaven’ copy from ‘Taurus’?
As mentioned in a previous post, the question of whether Led Zeppelin’s Stairway To Heaven (1971) copies a part of Spirit’s Taurus (1968) may soon be settled. Representatives of the late Randy Wolfe (aka Randy California) are claiming that the four-bar introduction section of Stairway To Heaven copies a substantial part of his 1968 instrumental composition Taurus. Judge Gary Klausner…
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Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven
So the Stairway to Heaven / Taurus controversy was back in the news yesterday, due to the fact that the dispute is to go to a jury in the US in May this year. I participated in a panel discussion about this a couple of years back for a Russian radio station. In the next couple…
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Did Sam Smith copy ‘Earth Song’ in ‘Writing’s On The Wall’?
I was interviewed this week by the UK’s Daily Telegraph newspaper about the alleged similarities between Sam Smith’s new James Bond movie theme song ‘Writing’s On The Wall’ and Michael Jackson’s Earth Song. This blog post is a more detailed version of that analysis. [If you’re wondering why The Carpenters appear in the above playlist, all will be explained shortly].…
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Sam Smith and Tom Petty – coincidental similarity or accidental copying?
This is a blog post about 5 bars of music. As reported in Rolling Stone and The Sun recently, the melodic similarity between Sam Smith’s 2014 song Stay With Me and Tom Petty’s I Won’t Back Down (1989) resulted in an amicable settlement between the writers and publishers sometime in 2014, resulting in Petty and…
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Authenticity and the role of live musicians in hip hop production #arpOslo2014
Alex Stevenson, Leeds Metropolitan University Author keywords: Hip hop, Authenticity, Live, Sampling Authenticity and the role of live musicians in hip hop production ABSTRACT: Despite hip hop music’s origins as a live performance-based art form, utilising turntables and sound systems, the incorporation of digital sampling technologies gave rise to a sample-based aesthetic within hip hop…
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Opening panel – Recorded Music In the Internet Age (download presentation) #arpOslo2014
Here are my own slides from today’s presentation in Oslo. JB slides (pdf) Citations as follows: Adorno, Theodore W. “On Popular Music.” Studies in Philosophy and Social Science IX (1941): 17–48. Degusta, Michael. “The REAL Death Of The Music Industry – Business Insider,” February 18, 2011. http://www.businessinsider.com/these-charts-explain-the-real-death-of-the-music-industry-2011-2 Gordon, Steve. “Why Apple’s Acquisition of Beats Is Bad…
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I feel fine. Friends – watch your step…
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Forensic Musicology – interview in Danish broadsheet
I was interviewed recently for the Danish broadsheet newspaper Weekendavisen, which ran a feature on musical plagiarism, referencing Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines. The text below is a (partly Google-powered) translation from Danish. For any native Danish speakers reading this, the original will probably make more sense – download here: Weekendavisen article 24 October 2014. Slørede grænser (Blurred…
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IASPM 2014: Morals, Meaning and Money: Popular Musical Copying in the Age of Digital
Adam Behr, University of East Anglia ABSTRACT: At the root of copyright’s legislative reach, and practical effects, is the matter of ‘copying’ itself – often referring to what may legitimately (morally or legally) be done with an apparently completed piece. Yet making music, and acquiring the skills to do so, is shot through with acts…
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IASPM 2014: Take It or Leave It! Copyright, Creators and Commercial Decision-Making
Kenny Barr, University of Glasgow ABSTRACT: This paper scrutinizes the role of copyright in the commercial decision-making of Popular Music creators. UK copyright law confers an exclusive ‘basket of rights’ on musical creators. Theoretically at least, this privileges creators as the key decision makers in copyright transactions. However, scholars have questioned whether most creators wield…
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