Sometimes when I compose a melody, it becomes very obvious that I 'borrowed' it from somewhere else. Most the time I have no idea if the melody infringes anything else among the universe of billions if not trillions of songs. Practically speaking, until that time when the music generates revenue and/or becomes wildly listened to, imho whether or not my music infringes is sort of not important - meaning I don't spend a lot of time worrying about it.
But suppose you have a song you want to publish and think it be potentially popular or a theme for a film that you hope has not been used in another film and you want to know sooner than later if the material is clean or infringing. Keep in mind that no matter how much effort you put into 'clearing' a song, you will never know 100%. So putting it into tangible form (and maintaining the date/proof) or even registering a copyright does not mitigate the situation - it only helps if you get or want to sue once another song is identified.
Now I am not coming from the legal standpoint as I am not a lawyer. I am more interested here in discussing what things you can do to 'pick the low hanging fruit'. For example, I wrote a melody I used last year in a nominated score but part of it (a repeating phrase), sounded familiar. It seemed to be it could conflict with "Seasons Of Love" from Rent. I asked a music supervisor to listen to both and his non-legal opinion suggested to go ahead and release. Again, that made me 'feel better' but was no guarantee I would not get sued by the owners of the music of rent. But as the score was part of a short film competition that does not generate any revenue, I felt comfortable to go ahead. On the other hand, if that melody is separately published and produced (with a singer and lyrics), I would continue to insure that there was not any infringement.
So here let's discuss two types of services/opportunities that can help us start on the journey to check whether our music infringes on another. There are free choices and paid choices.
Here are the three I use for initial 'peace of mind' that are free:
1. Play different parts of the music into the Shazam app and listen to the matches (if any).
2. Upload the film (as private) or an mp4 (not mp3) of the music to Youtube and see if its algorithms flag any part as infringing.
3. Check with a professional friend in the music or film biz that you know has a broad knowledge of music (like a music supervisor)
Paid Choices:
I have not myself been a position where I needed to invest money to further check whether music infringes. Perhaps others here have gone this route and can share their experiences - good and bad.
Hi Joel,
I would check with a music Attorney- they’ll be more subjective than what the music sounds like. Granted, it needs to be listened to.
What state are you in ? There’s Erin Jacobson in CA - LA area. She’s been on Taxi.
She has her own business - so should Be easily found online.
Music Supervisors are good, though an
Attorney probably knows more
Legalities in the Music Industry.
K. Kennard
Very interesting, Joel. I hadn't thought of those three tips for checking so thanks for sharing them. Another one would be to post in one of the many composer forums on FB (with permission) and see if anyone recognises it.
There's been an interesting copyright case here recently where Ed Sheeran was accused of copying some smaller singer-songwriters. The two musicologists they consulted totally disagreed on whether it was infringement. Personally I thought they were too similar to be coincidence, but the case was thrown out a couple of weeks ago with Sheeran and his co-writers acquitted. Considering even the expert musicologists disagreed, there's not always a consensus on whether or not something is copied or borrowed even amongst very knowledgeable people.
Karry - this is not a question of legality but rather I wanted people's thoughts about the process they go through to collect information on whether the song is too similar to another.
Joanna - have you gone the 'paid' route to do a deeper search. I have not (so far).
Joel Irwin no, not yet. If there was even a fraction of doubt on a major project though, I would instantly pay for a deep analysis/search. It might be costly but it'd be worth it.