Yea you did it to me again. Took away multiple songs I have been working on and had made lots of progress with.
I am done with the app, way too frustrating to invest all the time to learn a song that way and get the rug pulled. I have been transitioning to g. tabs and using spotify anyways. Guess I am all in with the new approach now.
Some more of my songs are missing again. What has happened?
I’m guessing maybe the Rolling Stone catalog was sold, or somethings similar to cause another “music rights” litigation thing. Wild Horses is gone, too. That was in my favorites waiting for me to learn more chords first. I wonder how long the other 9 Stones songs will last. sigh
Damn, I just checked mine and yup, Mary Jane’s Last Dance is gone!
Again I’m guessing they might not be as popular and missing publishers’ radar.
Has this announcement appeared yet or have I missed it?
I guess it’s a publishing rights (costs) issue again.
This is the second time this has happened (without notice) and like others I’m not amused that there hasn’t been any notification provided.
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Not yet, expect some kind of comment very soon.
RE; the situation - I would like to express my apologies on behalf of the team - it is beyond the control of anyone at JustinGuitar or Musopia unfortunately.
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Hey all.
Firstly - sorry. I would also be upset if a song I was working on was suddenly removed from the app. I hear your frustration and feel it too.
Of course, it’s upsetting for me when things like this happen because I know that people will be disappointed and angry, and because many of the songs are my personal favourites too - I’m a huge fan on Tom Petty and The Stones…
The legalities can get pretty complex because the app relies on agreements with publishers. Often the aim is to get blanket licenses with publishing groups to simplify the process and accounting, but sometimes publishers can remove themselves from a blanket and decide to negotiate things independently.
The legal team working for Musopia (the app development company) advised that we should remove the music whose rights were held by certain publishing companies to avoid litigation - and so we were not left with any choice.
I hope you can understand that removing songs is not a choice, nor is it done to profit - but to keep the app alive!
I am and will remain transparent about the problems with have with securing rights for the songs and it’s not always easy.
So, apologies again; there’s just nothing I can do but hope that the legal people can sort out an arrangement that satisfies everyone and the songs return. There are people working on it.
I will see what I can do to try and get some kind of notice period. As far as I’m aware, we don’t get one, so hard to pass it on… but will see what can be done on that front at least!
Apologies again. J.
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It’s sad 
that the music industry is run by bean counters and lawyers and most of the money never makes it to the actual artists who create the music in the first plays.
At least a lot of the new up and coming artist have figured out that keeping their rights to their music will pay off in the long run and with the internet they can even distribute their music themselves. Maybe some of them will discover Justin’s app and use it as another source of revenue and a way to get their music out for others to learn and play along with.
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Often the indy bands are even harder to license cos they don’t understand the business and sometimes it’s just too expensive for them to get into… the money from my app is unlikely to be a lot per song per year, and if yu have to hire a lawyer and do an admin deal with a major to take care of royalty collection, it might not be worth it… even sadder eh.
TBH, getting people to listen to your music is the hardest thing these days, so I’d imagine that just getting a song in the app would be cool - just getting more people to hear your music… but getting paid likely to be a pain in the ass!
But the industry is slowly ironing out the wrinkles 
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Maybe some day ai will come up with a simple method without lawyers bean counters raking in all the profit
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Justin, thanks for the explanation.
I think the lack of notice is what really angers people. It would certainly anger me if I was just starting to learn guitar, and had invested possibly many hours in learning a song…only to have that song yanked out from under me without notice or explanation.
So having some notice - say a month - would go a long way towards mitigating this.
BTW, this also applies to things like the website and the Community.
I did software development for 30+ years, and one of the things I learned the hard way was that the quickest way to anger the users was to change things with no notice and no explanation.
Clear, up-front communication is almost always easier than damage control.
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Thanks for shedding some light on the situation Justin. I’m sure the licensing is a serious PITA. I keep meaning to transpose all songs I’m working on to paper, but I get lazy 
So the lack of notice is the biggest part for me.
Is there somewhere we can find a list of the songs that were removed?
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I have not only seen songs removed but changed. For instance, “I’m on Fire” was originally done with easy open chords. Now it has a more difficult arrangment with barre chords. Not complaining as it encouraged me to try it out and that made me try all sorts of other songs.
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I’m learning Practical Theory, Grade 4, Module 4.2 
The anger people are expressing is all hugely mis-directed. It’s the greedy people in suits wringing every last cent out of the likes of the Stones that should be on the receiving end of your ire. It’s all pretty short sighted on their part as I’ll learn music from a different band and possibly buy their albums instead.
What I won’t be doing though is cancelling my app subscription - it has been and still remains a fantastic tool that has really helped me on my guitar playing journey
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Justin, I understand it’s a difficult position to be in. Publishers can be a pain in the butt to deal with, but also costly (in various ways) if the relationship sours. Thanks for letting us know the particulars.
Chris
C’mon man, there are hundreds of songs on the app, just choose some new ones to learn!
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Moves like a Jagger isn’t there on the app. Some other songs too, mentioned in the song videos of the previous modules weren’t there