I’ve recently started exploring the ins and outs of DAWs and recording my playing properly. I started out attempting full covers of songs by creating bass and drum tracks from scratch (via midi programming) to compliment my guitar track. This week, I’ve also explored splitting real songs into stems, removing the original guitar part and replacing it with my own playing. Obviously this is a far quicker route to a “full” song and eliminates the need for any abysmal vocals from me!
But when I thought about posting my efforts, it brought up the muddy topic of copyright infringement. There are unofficial song covers all over platforms like YouTube, so I’m guessing that’s generally seen as ok, presumably on the condition that they’re not monetised.
But what about recording over the official version of a song as you play along or, as I have, replacing one part of an official song with your own playing? At first glance it seems like an infringement as in both cases, you are uploading at least parts of the original content.
For that reason I’m reluctant to do anything other than share them privately with friends. Does anyone know if posting them publicly would actually be an infringement?
I don’t know the answer, but I am for sure ambivalent about posting near anything. That said, I do post what I’ve done.
As for playing along with a song, cutting out the pieces that I want to do, etc. I just don’t do that.
Me personally. I want to play a song. I want to play it for my wife, or my neighbors, who ever will listen to me. For me, that means I have to play a song by myself. If I’m gonna sing, I gotta sing it. Point is, it needs to be me making music. Not a back track that I’m playing along with, or cutting up to put me into said song.
That said, I have, and will likely continue to use bass and drum back tracks. But I tend to find them on the www. I think generally they are drum and bass parts that others (not original band) have attempted. Most have been pretty good.
Since ‘I’ want to make music. This also dictates to me what songs I can play. And have them sound reasonably good. I can’t be a orchestra. I can’t be a moog synthicisor, I can’t have harmony, vocals or guitar, if I’m doing it in one shot, one video, one audio track. I can if I want to multi track though, on some counts.
Anyways, I want to be me. If I can’t do a song, so be it, I’ll need to move on to one I can do that meets ‘my’ criteria.
And then there’s the copy right thing. I’m always concerned about that. I don’t know the answer to that either. I do think youtube does seem to check to see if the original writers objects to me copying the song. I will see during the upload process if the artist says it’s ok for me to copy. Generally. Copy Wright for sure is a touchy subject that I tip toe around so as to not infringe on anyone. So far, what I’ve put up has not got me in trouble. So far!
No problem, there are several people who do that here and as long as you don’t make money with it, there is hardly anyone who will give you a warning, and you will still first receive a message from YouTube that you are infringing a copyright and then you simply take down that song … simple.
Copyright claims just mean that the copyright owner has decided to monetize, track, or block your video in certain areas (because their copyright was found in your video). It’s not a punishment for your entire YouTube channel. Copyright strikes, on the other hand, are valid takedown requests from the copyright owner against your content. This takedown request is an official legal action by the owner. These requests will result in the video being completely removed from YouTube and a strike on your YouTube channel.
greetings
The problem with a subject like this is it’s really hard to separate internet mythology from fact. Also Google can change the rules overnight.
It depends to some degree what your aim is from posting. Is it as a means of sharing privately with friends and/or a community like this one, or is it with the hope of maybe growing a channel?
I’d hate to be trying to grow a channel, build a following because there’s so many pitfalls around copyright stuff and also from random scumbags trying to steal the ownership of original content.
In my case, YouTube is just a convenient place to host some videos of me learning to play that I add to my Learning Log here (which I haven’t updated in ages) so I post what I want, making it so it’s not searchable on YouTube and if I infringe the rules there’s no real consequences to me.
I definitely appreciate where you’re coming from, and will likely think along the same lines once I’m a good enough player. But right now I’m not. I can play rhythm and a few basic finger style patters, but I can barely combine them, and I can’t solo or improvise or anything like that. Given that the rhythm of most songs involves one or two progressions on repeat for 3-4 minutes, I get bored just listening to myself so it’s not going to be interesting for family, friends, or whoever else.
That’s why I started making bass and drum tracks to go along with my playing. At least then it sounds like a proper song. The trouble is that creating these via a DAWs midi programmer is extremely tedious, and takes multiple times longer than recording the real guitar part it’s meant to compliment. Good for long-term projects I care about, not so much for a quick blast for people to see how I’m getting on.
Playing along with full songs is obviously a good option and one I’ve used for years… I use Rocksmith regularly, I was subscribed to Justin’s app for a year, and I’ve occasionally used a couple of similar apps since. But all of the above include the original guitar in the mix, which for me is problematic for two reasons. First, it makes me feel like I’m competing for space in the song, or that I’m just tacked onto the band instead of being a part of it. Second, and more importantly, having a perfectly played guitar next to my own performance can partially or fully hide my inevitable mistakes. I don’t want that. Hearing my mistakes tells me what I need to practice, and other people hearing them gives me the incentive to do so.
So yeah, that’s why I started experimenting with stripping the guitar out of real songs and replacing it with my own performance. I find it fun to play as if I’m part of the band, and the end result is more interesting for both myself and others to listen to.
Hmm, is there? I’ve seen people here playing over the top of a real song in the background, but not removing part of the song and inserting their performance in it’s place. You have to remember that my uploads won’t just be a video of me playing. They will sound exactly like the original song in every way except the rhythm guitar.
Huh… now that I’ve put it in those words, It’s starting to sound a lot more like it would constitute copyright infringement.
If it’s somehow allowed, with whoever. I only found a reliable (and free) way of splitting songs yesterday, so the only song I’ve “covered” so far is one by Avril Lavigne. I can’t say I know anything about her really, and only heard the song for the first time three days ago, despite it being 20 years old.
The one and only use would be to send it to family and friends, and occasionally post here or on friends-only social media. I have no interest in anything I upload being searchable on YouTube or the internet at large, nor do I have any interest in building a channel and monetising it.
I’m getting the feeling this might be one of those suck-it-and-see situations.
From you’ve said I would say don’t overthink it, just go for it - the worst that will happen is they’ll take down your videos - and you shouldn’t entrust your only copy of a recording to YouTube anyway
It’s completely okay to use the original song as a backing track. When you upload it on YouTube, it may affect your monetisation (probably not a concern for most of us here) and restrict it in some countries (I only had restrictions for Russia so far and I’m okay with that).
I recorded a cover of The Warning’s Money last year using the original song with guitar removed as a backing track. That’s what YT says:
Like many here, I’ve publicly posted quite a few songs on YT etc, playing over a BT with guitars removed.
And like many, I’ve had a few copyright claims. No big deal.
I’ve had a few uploads that are also ‘partially blocked’; meaning they are not viewable in certain parts of the world.
I have one upload that is ‘blocked’ totally. ie its status was changed by YT from ‘public’ to ‘unlisted’. So its still on Youtube, but only those with a direct link can see it. Interstingly, it was the solo to ACDCs You Shook Me All Night Long.
I’m not really interested in creating my own bass, drum, keyboards etc tracks. It doesnt float my boat, and its time consuming; time I’d rather spend on my guitar.
And as I play mostly Blues stuff these days, alot of my stuff is improvised, so the copyright claims dont really happen much anymore.
So dont stress man. Its all good. Just dont upload an Eagles song; Donny likes to keep all those for himself…
Wow, it’s been a long time since I actually posted anything on the forum.
On topic, I played along to (from songsterr):
ABBA - Summer Night City;
AC/DC - Back in Black / Highway to Hell;
Black Sabbath - Never Say Die;
Bon Jovi - It’s My Life;
Bruce Springsteen - Born in the USA;
Deep Purple - Smoke on the Water;
Epica - Run For Fall (violin portion);
Eric Clapton - Cocaine;
Garbage - Queer;
Howard Blake - Walking in the Air;
Judas Priest - Braking the Law (main riff (na na na, na nana na nana na…);
Nightwish - Once Upon a Troubadour (main motif);
Rammstein - Rammstein;
Three Day Grace - Animal I Have Become;
ZZTop - Rough Boy
Now, to answer about copyright infringement - youtube or whatever is really finicky with it. If your playing is at least 50 percent reminsicent of the song - bam, you have a copyright. Take that as a compliment, though. Anyways, you can, probably, bypass youtube and the like by using other media for publishing (either private or not) like soundcloud (though, it’s been ages since I actually published anything on soundcloud).
For me the difference with Songsterr is that you are not playing along to or modifying the original recording. I suppose under the exact letter of the law it is still infringement, but I would think most platforms/artists would let it go given that actual work has been put in to recreate the song from scratch. That’s why for some songs I am making the bass & drum tracks as well as playing the guitar part.
In contrast, you have apps/sites that show you the chords while you play along to an official YouTube video. The vast majority do not have licenses for the videos, and some have been all but disabled in certain countries due to YouTube cracking down on them citing copyright infringement. Yet other very popular apps/sites continue to get away with it. It’s all very murky.
But oh well. I’ll just upload unlisted videos for sharing/posting and see what happens.
What people fear is a copyright strike and that’s not what this is. The song has been identified as belonging to someone else and it only means you can’t make money from it (and most of us don’t meet the minimum criteria for monetising anyway). This is not a problem, you can have endless videos flagged this way and there’s no consequences from it.
A copyright strike is different. That’s when your recording is flagged as belonging to someone else and they don’t allow it. You only get 3 of these before you lose your channel.
If you stay away from a few select artists then many people successfully upload their videos and have no problems at all. It all gets blown out of proportion as if the man from YouTube will turn up at your house and confiscate your guitars or worse
