Myspace, jazz standards and copyright?

[Kari S]

Does anyone know what's Myspace's take on jazz "covers" posted on one's profile? Well, I'm guessing that they don't, that's why I'm asking here first. I know that it's prohibited to post other artists' mp3's per se under a "musician" profile, as well as cover versions of pop/rock songs, but how is it with modern jazz standards like Shorter, Henderson, Hubbard etc.? Under the Myspace rules it says that you should only post music that you own the copyright to ( / have composed I guess)...but it got me thinking, since us jazz folk do things a little bit differently. Like, let's say I do an arranged version of "Red Clay" and put in the info it was originally composed by Freddie?

[Jim Alfredson]

Nobody listens to or cares about jazz. Don't worry about it.

[Daniel A]

Regardless how much you rearrange "Red Clay" it would still be a Freddie Hubbard composition and thus subject to copyright. To make it OK, you would have to rearrange it into a completely new composition, and there is no definitive answer for when that would be.

[Jim Alfredson]

Not true. All you'd have to do is play a new melody over the changes. The changes could be exactly like the ones on the record, right down to the rhythm and it wouldn't matter. As long as you put a different melody over the top, it is considered a new composition. You can only copyright words and melodies, not chord changes.

But I still stick to the fact that nobody cares. Just put it up there. It's not like Freddie Hubbard is going to find it and say "WHAT THE FUCK!?!? WHERE'S MY 50 CENTS!!!"

[Daniel A]

I took it Kari wanted to play the actual theme for 'Red Clay', but with a new melody there is of course no problem. But it's not like the changes for 'Red Clay' are that revolutionary, so then it isn't even 'Red Clay' anymore.

[randissimo]

I took it Kari wanted to play the actual theme for 'Red Clay', but with a new melody there is of course no problem. But it's not like the changes for 'Red Clay' are that revolutionary, so then it isn't even 'Red Clay' anymore.

I've uploaded tunes to my profile and they have been removed.

Don't really understand how they track them..

[Joe G]

I took it Kari wanted to play the actual theme for 'Red Clay', but with a new melody there is of course no problem. But it's not like the changes for 'Red Clay' are that revolutionary, so then it isn't even 'Red Clay' anymore.

I've uploaded tunes to my profile and they have been removed.

Don't really understand how they track them..

Randy, I think in your case it was simply that whomever it was that you were linking to removed the song from their profile. Correct? I don't the copyright regulations apply to non-music myspace pages.

Edited November 8, 2007 by Joe G

[Kari S]

Yeah, I was kinda wondering "aloud" I have to go with cynical Jim's opinion...

By the way, since we're splitting hair, aren't the changes in "Red Clay" (the solos) from "Sunny"...

[Free For All]

By the way, since we're splitting hair, aren't the changes in "Red Clay" (the solos) from "Sunny"...

Sunny has a longer form that includes other sections (and changes) but the first fours bars are the same as the chord sequence that's used during the solo section of Red Clay. I don't know if the similarity to the pop tune was intentional or coincidental on Freddie's part.

Short answer: Yes

[Neal Pomea]

Randy, I think in your case it was simply that whomever it was that you were linking to removed the song from their profile. Correct? I don't the copyright regulations apply to non-music myspace pages.

Not necessarily so. It could be, but it could work in other ways too.

The song doesn't have to be in another musician's profile. It can be on the Web somewhere. People use those embedded music players to link to songs from my Web site, for instance (not my MySpace profile). They use up my bandwidth rather than putting the songs on their own server. The songs play as background music whenever their friends go to their MySpace page, but the bandwidth comes from me. If it ends up costing me too much bandwidth I will try to contact them and ask them not to link that way to my Web site for their background music, but I don't want to have to remove the songs from my Web site.

[bertrand]

At the gig I saw at the Iridium in April, Freddie specifically told the audience that 'Red Clay' was based on 'Sunny'.

Bertrand.