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Joined: Jun 2006
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Joined: Jun 2006
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Hi ya all,
I know it’s the done thing now for everyone to post their songs on the internet. As home recording hobbyists it’s really the only way we can get some feedback on our songs and good advice on how to improve the sound and help to improve our song writing technique.
My question is, say that you were to write a song that you considered to be a very good song so good in fact that it had commercial possibilities, would it be a wise idea to post it on this or any other internet forum, and would doing so open up the possibility that someone else seeing and hearing the song could steal either all or part of it?
Unfortunately I am not in the position to have written any great songs, but having listened to a few by posters on here it seems that a few of them could take their songs a lot further.
All the best
Martin
Last edited by martin57; 06/01/10 10:00 AM.
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Hi Martin,
I'm sure that anything can be stolen. When registering a copyright in the U.S. one has to list the date of first publication. This would be a factor in any copyright dispute, i.e. if you have the money required to fight a claim.
Don S.
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Martin,
The first question you would need to ask yourself is whether you have the passion and desire to fight for a copyright violation against someone who potentially stole your song. If you are willing to pay for the legal support for that, then I would recommend that you follow whatever copyright registration convention exist in the UK.
In the US, they've made the registration process rather simple - surprisingly so. It's the defense of the copyright registration where the difficulty and the big dollars can be spent.
I think most of us posting original content for others to listen to realize that this is probably all the audience we will have - but you know what - we're o.k. with that.
Now, if I really wanted to make a push to generate income with original songs, I would take a slightly different approach. I would only post snippets, perhaps 1 minute versions at reasonable quality, of original songs.
Until I make that push, I'm happy with the couple hundred or so listeners I have on-line.
You have to make this call for yourself - am I posting songs to make money, or to share my art, or to try to combine the two? If you can seriously answer that question, then you are well on your way to answering your original question. Every time I consider trying to combine the two, it starts to feel and smell like work - which is not what I want it to be. There is also a fear of the unknown that comes into play. What if I think my songs are really good like my couple hundred listeners tell me, but the fact is that they are just being nice, or have poor judgment of what is popular? The thing is that today's media outlets, particularly the internet and some savvy using it to one's advantage, allow one to get a much better feel for that than say a guy playing songs in his barn in the middle of Oklahoma back in the 1960's.
If you want to make money on your music as you have performed it, then it's almost a foregone conclusion you have to have media content on-line in an easy to use fashion. Some of that might mean giveaway of songs. I'm on mailing lists for some popular bands (switchfoot and coldplay) and both of them send along a freebie song now and then - which means that nearly instantly those songs are on some illegal download website.
The choice is really up to you. If your stuff is that good, people will steal it. But some of that stealing might be what actually gets you noticed.
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A friend once said to me concerning copyrights, "I wish someone would steal one of my songs, at least I would know I was on the right track!"
If you post it in the right places, such as youtube, there's proof right there that you had the song on such and such date. You've got witnesses if it got right down to it.
A friend of mine that wrote a country classic told me once, "They don't steal your song, they steal your idea." Meaning they just rewrite your song. And I may be paranoid but a song of mine was getting pitched a lot in Nashville. It never got recorded but not long after my song made the rounds out came a song by a popular artist (that he wrote) and it was a big hit. The song had the same idea as mine and almost the same title. A publisher also once told me that you have to be careful who you played your songs for.
(Soap box) Thievery is a part of life. All of us do it. A guy has a great idea at work, word gets around and everybody is doing the same thing. I see someone play a hot lick on the guitar and I copy it. Microsoft steals from Apple, Apple steals from Microsoft, the hyena steals a kill from a cheetah, a man opens a store on a corner and starts making a killing and suddenly here comes the other guy opening a store on the other corner trying to steal his business, and the beat goes on ad infinitum. It's not human nature, it's the nature of life.
"The desire for fame is the last infirmity cast off even by the wise."
Cornelius Tacitus
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Rockstar, you got a couple hundred listeners? ........ Dude! Yer a .... well .... you know .... Rockstar!!!
HP Win 11 12 gig ram, Mac mini Sonoma with 16 gig of ram, BiaB/RB 2026, Reaper 7, Harrison Mixbus 11 , Presonus Audiobox USB96
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Quote:
Rockstar, you got a couple hundred listeners? ........ Dude! Yer a .... well .... you know .... Rockstar!!!
Well,
Based on KVRforum.com listenership, the 20 or so hits I get here, the FAWM.org songwriting community, Soundcloud plays and downloads - that's my best estimate. (probably on the high side!
 )
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Quote:
Well,
Based on KVRforum.com listenership, the 20 or so hits I get here, the FAWM.org songwriting community, Soundcloud plays and downloads - that's my best estimate. (probably on the high side!
)
Sometimes after getting my stats, the total downloads look pretty good. But when I divide total downloads into total memory usage, I get a different picture. It's obvious that not everyone is listening to the whole song.
That's rather humbling. 
Don S.
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Don,
Yeah, there's probably no easy way to quantify unique listeners and listens. I do think it's around a couple hundred though, just being part of a few completely different online communities with almost no 'Venn Diagram' overlap between them, and having actual ways to count unique listeners at a couple of them, it turns out to be about that number.
Quite shy of the '1000 true fans' legend on the internet that states something to the effect that 1000 true fans are what it takes to potentially make a living as a musician. (Google '1000 true fans' for more info)
But as I stated above, garnering that kind of a fan base takes some hard work and determination, and a willingness to accept defeat. Smells like work. Not sure I want to go there.
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