The Hard Drive With 68 Billion Melodies

In an era when millions of songwriters upload music to the internet—and just about any song can be plucked from obscurity by TikTok teens—it seems inevitable that the same melodies end up in different songs. There have been a number of high-profile music copyright-infringement cases, including a multimillion-dollar decision against Katy Perry for her song “Dark Horse.” A jury found that she’d infringed upon the copyright of Flame, a Christian rapper who’d posted a song with the same melody to YouTube, even though Perry insisted that she’d never heard of the song or the rapper. For some musicians, musicologists, and lawyers, the verdict felt scary; after all, large numbers of songs now live on SoundCloud and YouTube. It became thinkable to ask: Could the world run out of original melodies?

more…

Tau.Neutrino said:

The Hard Drive With 68 Billion Melodies

In an era when millions of songwriters upload music to the internet—and just about any song can be plucked from obscurity by TikTok teens—it seems inevitable that the same melodies end up in different songs. There have been a number of high-profile music copyright-infringement cases, including a multimillion-dollar decision against Katy Perry for her song “Dark Horse.” A jury found that she’d infringed upon the copyright of Flame, a Christian rapper who’d posted a song with the same melody to YouTube, even though Perry insisted that she’d never heard of the song or the rapper. For some musicians, musicologists, and lawyers, the verdict felt scary; after all, large numbers of songs now live on SoundCloud and YouTube. It became thinkable to ask: Could the world run out of original melodies?

more…

Coincidentally, I was just listening to:
Davey Graham

He used a time machine to travel 6 years into the future and steal that tune from Jimmy Page.

Tau.Neutrino said:

The Hard Drive With 68 Billion Melodies

In an era when millions of songwriters upload music to the internet—and just about any song can be plucked from obscurity by TikTok teens—it seems inevitable that the same melodies end up in different songs. There have been a number of high-profile music copyright-infringement cases, including a multimillion-dollar decision against Katy Perry for her song “Dark Horse.” A jury found that she’d infringed upon the copyright of Flame, a Christian rapper who’d posted a song with the same melody to YouTube, even though Perry insisted that she’d never heard of the song or the rapper. For some musicians, musicologists, and lawyers, the verdict felt scary; after all, large numbers of songs now live on SoundCloud and YouTube. It became thinkable to ask: Could the world run out of original melodies?

more…

Interesting. I want to write something like that … but … including only the most popular classical (and classical popular) melodies, some 100 million or so on the chromatic scale not just in the key of C. Simplifying it to ignore repeats of notes, and to ignore note length.

Also I want software that reduces all the midi files I can find to simple melodies. That means extracting the melody by suppressing harmony, switching to a common key and ignoring note length. Theme from William Tell Overture for instance becomes (in semitones from the first note)
0 5 7 9 0 5 9 7 4 0 in absolute pitch or 5 2 2 -9 5 4 -2 -3 -4 in relative pitch.

> large numbers of songs now live on SoundCloud

What’s SoundCloud? I have a lot I want to upload.

mollwollfumble said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

The Hard Drive With 68 Billion Melodies

In an era when millions of songwriters upload music to the internet—and just about any song can be plucked from obscurity by TikTok teens—it seems inevitable that the same melodies end up in different songs. There have been a number of high-profile music copyright-infringement cases, including a multimillion-dollar decision against Katy Perry for her song “Dark Horse.” A jury found that she’d infringed upon the copyright of Flame, a Christian rapper who’d posted a song with the same melody to YouTube, even though Perry insisted that she’d never heard of the song or the rapper. For some musicians, musicologists, and lawyers, the verdict felt scary; after all, large numbers of songs now live on SoundCloud and YouTube. It became thinkable to ask: Could the world run out of original melodies?

more…

Interesting. I want to write something like that … but … including only the most popular classical (and classical popular) melodies, some 100 million or so on the chromatic scale not just in the key of C. Simplifying it to ignore repeats of notes, and to ignore note length.

Also I want software that reduces all the midi files I can find to simple melodies. That means extracting the melody by suppressing harmony, switching to a common key and ignoring note length. Theme from William Tell Overture for instance becomes (in semitones from the first note)
0 5 7 9 0 5 9 7 4 0 in absolute pitch or 5 2 2 -9 5 4 -2 -3 -4 in relative pitch.

> large numbers of songs now live on SoundCloud

What’s SoundCloud? I have a lot I want to upload.

Whoops.

SoundCloud is a Platform in which to upload music.

The Rev Dodgson said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

The Hard Drive With 68 Billion Melodies

In an era when millions of songwriters upload music to the internet—and just about any song can be plucked from obscurity by TikTok teens—it seems inevitable that the same melodies end up in different songs. There have been a number of high-profile music copyright-infringement cases, including a multimillion-dollar decision against Katy Perry for her song “Dark Horse.” A jury found that she’d infringed upon the copyright of Flame, a Christian rapper who’d posted a song with the same melody to YouTube, even though Perry insisted that she’d never heard of the song or the rapper. For some musicians, musicologists, and lawyers, the verdict felt scary; after all, large numbers of songs now live on SoundCloud and YouTube. It became thinkable to ask: Could the world run out of original melodies?

more…

Coincidentally, I was just listening to:
Davey Graham

He used a time machine to travel 6 years into the future and steal that tune from Jimmy Page.

Read the article now.

I think it just reflects the difficulty of handling these things reasonably.

On the one hand, it was ludicrous that a few notes from the Gum tree song, which almost everyone didn’t recognise anyway, should cost the authors of a totally different song big money. On the other, it is equally ludicrous that people like Jimmy Page can base compositions very closely on the works of other people, without compensating them in any way.

I don’t see how generating all these tunes on a computer will improve things at all.

Led Zep plagarising music…well, I never.

Divine Angel said:

Whoops.

SoundCloud is a Platform in which to upload music.

I’m not sure whether you were too old or too young to know this

dv said:

Divine Angel said:

Whoops.

SoundCloud is a Platform in which to upload music.

I’m not sure whether you were too old or too young to know this

I’d never heard of it but then I’m an image person not a sound person.

Tamb said:

not a sound person.

ain’t that the truth :-P

dv said:

Tamb said:

not a sound person.

ain’t that the truth :-P

Congratulations. You win the quick spot prize.

The Rev Dodgson said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

The Hard Drive With 68 Billion Melodies

In an era when millions of songwriters upload music to the internet—and just about any song can be plucked from obscurity by TikTok teens—it seems inevitable that the same melodies end up in different songs. There have been a number of high-profile music copyright-infringement cases, including a multimillion-dollar decision against Katy Perry for her song “Dark Horse.” A jury found that she’d infringed upon the copyright of Flame, a Christian rapper who’d posted a song with the same melody to YouTube, even though Perry insisted that she’d never heard of the song or the rapper. For some musicians, musicologists, and lawyers, the verdict felt scary; after all, large numbers of songs now live on SoundCloud and YouTube. It became thinkable to ask: Could the world run out of original melodies?

more…

Coincidentally, I was just listening to:
Davey Graham

He used a time machine to travel 6 years into the future and steal that tune from Jimmy Page.

:) thanks for the vid.

roughbarked said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

The Hard Drive With 68 Billion Melodies

In an era when millions of songwriters upload music to the internet—and just about any song can be plucked from obscurity by TikTok teens—it seems inevitable that the same melodies end up in different songs. There have been a number of high-profile music copyright-infringement cases, including a multimillion-dollar decision against Katy Perry for her song “Dark Horse.” A jury found that she’d infringed upon the copyright of Flame, a Christian rapper who’d posted a song with the same melody to YouTube, even though Perry insisted that she’d never heard of the song or the rapper. For some musicians, musicologists, and lawyers, the verdict felt scary; after all, large numbers of songs now live on SoundCloud and YouTube. It became thinkable to ask: Could the world run out of original melodies?

more…

Coincidentally, I was just listening to:
Davey Graham

He used a time machine to travel 6 years into the future and steal that tune from Jimmy Page.

:) thanks for the vid.

You might like this one too:
Bert & John

The Rev Dodgson said:

roughbarked said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

Coincidentally, I was just listening to:
Davey Graham

He used a time machine to travel 6 years into the future and steal that tune from Jimmy Page.

:) thanks for the vid.

You might like this one too:
Bert & John

They perform well together.

The Rev Dodgson said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

The Hard Drive With 68 Billion Melodies

In an era when millions of songwriters upload music to the internet—and just about any song can be plucked from obscurity by TikTok teens—it seems inevitable that the same melodies end up in different songs. There have been a number of high-profile music copyright-infringement cases, including a multimillion-dollar decision against Katy Perry for her song “Dark Horse.” A jury found that she’d infringed upon the copyright of Flame, a Christian rapper who’d posted a song with the same melody to YouTube, even though Perry insisted that she’d never heard of the song or the rapper. For some musicians, musicologists, and lawyers, the verdict felt scary; after all, large numbers of songs now live on SoundCloud and YouTube. It became thinkable to ask: Could the world run out of original melodies?

more…

Coincidentally, I was just listening to:
Davey Graham

He used a time machine to travel 6 years into the future and steal that tune from Jimmy Page.

Read the article now.

I think it just reflects the difficulty of handling these things reasonably.

On the one hand, it was ludicrous that a few notes from the Gum tree song, which almost everyone didn’t recognise anyway, should cost the authors of a totally different song big money. On the other, it is equally ludicrous that people like Jimmy Page can base compositions very closely on the works of other people, without compensating them in any way.

I don’t see how generating all these tunes on a computer will improve things at all.

Well, if it can show that all modern melodies were already in classical music then it would save a lot of money because copyright has expired. LOL.

I’d like to have a go in order to catalog melody similarities and differences. For example 1, given a melody which preexisting melody is closest to it. Makes identification of music much easier. Each melody can be given a simple single catalogue number.

Example 2 is as an aide in making better new melodies, by avoiding old ones, but not by too much (not too dissonant).