Originally Posted By: KeithS
RunandWrite,

I think you are asking one question and our fellow forumites are interpreting it as another.

I think what everyone other than Tony thinks you are saying is “Hey, I recorded a bunch of YouTube videos of me playing my saxophone over a backing track I made with BIAB. Are there copyright issues with that?”

I think what you are actually saying is this: “I made a bunch of backing tracks that I generally use to back myself up when I play the sax. I think it would be cool to share these backing tracks on YouTube for other people to use.”

If I’m correct about what your inquiry actually is, then the answer is, if you are careful about how you do it, you can avoid infringing anyone’s copyright.

First, you can freely distribute recordings that you have created with BIAB, as long as you’ve not infringed on the copyright of a third party.

The next thing to consider is this: The chord progression of a song is not subject to copyright, so as long as you haven’t recorded the melody of a song or some readily identifiable riff, you have not infringed on a copyright by providing a backing track of chords created by BIAB. Tony has already made this comment.

But you are not home free just yet. It’s been my observation, that you can run afoul of someone’s copyright ownership by identifying your background track using the copyrighted title of someone else’s work. For instance if I use BIAB to create a backing track for the Beatles song, Yesterday, and say that here is a backing track for Yesterday, I probably have infringed on Lennon and McCartney’s copyright.

However, if I say something like, “Here is a song about the Day before Today by The Liverpool Four, I’ve probably done enough to communicate what the backing track can be used for without stepping on John & Paul’s rights.



There's no misunderstanding here. He says he wants to create a BB track of a cover song and SHARE it with others. That is a copyright violation. It doesn't matter how "careful" you are. If it's a cover and you don't have the rights to it, you're infringing.

It's only legal to do that for PERSONAL use. As soon as you put it out for someone to hear or use, you have violated the copyright laws.

Chord progressions as you pointed out are not copyrightable (generally speaking) , but it doesn't sound remotely like that's his plan. If you record a chord progression and call it (as in your example) Yesterday, AND the chord progression is for the song Yesterday, you have in fact violated the law. A reasonable jury would slam dunk that for the writers faster than you could sing the old Hee Haw song, Gloom, dispair, and agony on me. Fancy verbage doesn't negate the law my friend.

The best option is if someone wants to record a cover, keep it under wraps or post it on YouTube where they will monitize it or remove it for you.

You can find my music at:
www.herbhartley.com
Add nothing that adds nothing to the music.
You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.

The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.