Disclaimer: I’m not a lawyer; consult a lawyer if you want legal advice.

There are so many websites out there freely sharing lyrics, chords, and tabs to copyrighted material that it seems almost pointless to make a stand. Yet, in the midst of such an abundance of lawlessness, I feel I need to say something to justify why I try not to break the law.

If a song was published after 1922, it is likely that someone owns the rights to that song (songwriter rights and publisher rights). Maybe most people don’t realize that sharing music requires rights, even for educational purposes (except in the case of small snippets), and especially in the case of a number of popular Patreon creators that are sharing that material to gain a subscription following (i.e. for profit). I feel like it is stealing to share something that is not yours to share. This includes:

• Sharing song sheets with just lyrics & chords. Lyrics are half of a songwriter’s copyright.
• Sharing staff notation or tablature that includes the melody of a song. Melodies are the other half of the songwriter’s copyright.

However … If you want to share a song that doesn’t belong to you, there are ways you can do it that do not break the law. As I understand things, here are some ways you may be able to proceed without getting yourself into hot water or wading through ethically grey water (the point is, stay dry) …

• Contact the copyright holder and get permission to share the song. This is difficult and impractical most of the time. Forgive me if I don’t elaborate, but just imagine contacting Disney corporate and seeing if you can get the rights to publish a version of You Ain’t Never Had a Friend Like Me … Let’s just say we’re talking about the stuff of nightmares.
• Work through a program that licenses the rights of songs for publishing arrangements legally, like the Sheet Music Plus SMPPress Program. The catalog of songs that you can legally arrange is absolutely enormous, 1.7 million songs at present (though there are some glaring omissions, like most of the Disney catalog … just don’t do Disney, even if you’re dying to – like me, I love those golden era tunes).
• Publish “In the Style Of” lead sheets. These must not include melody notation or lyrics … people will have to memorize that part (and it is probably good for them to just listen to the song enough times to have it memorized anyway). Chord progressions, rhythms, strumming and even bass lines are not subject to copyright (watch out for signature ‘licks’ though, which could be viewed as melodic material).
• Publish your tutorials via YouTube and hope for the best; they’re currently suggest contacting a lawyer if you want to use someone else’s music, but my experience has been that most publishers will automatically flag your video on copyright grounds for a portion of your revenue share rather than have it taken down or blocked. Still there is the possibility of getting a copyright strike and having your channel removed … most of the publishers just want the revenue though. You can check to see if someone else has ‘covered’ the song you want to do, which may give you an indication if you’ll have trouble, but what’s up today may at any moment be taken down at the whim of the copyright holder. If you want to share a PDF to accompany the video, publish it through SMPPress and add a link to it in the video description.
• No arranging skills? Buy a copy of the music. Ask your club members to buy copies as well. You can get most songs this way. Just Google ‘SONG NAME Sheet Music’ and you’ll probably get several ads for legal copies of the music. Disney songs anyone?

I’ve given this dilemma quite a bit of thought, as it impacts me more as an ukulele teacher than it does as a composer and ukulele artist. People want to learn popular songs, and I don’t blame them. When you’re dealing with large groups of people and preparing full programs of music to perform, the cost of buying copies can really add up. I’ve made some missteps in the past, but am trying to do better.

My Creative Plans for Future Arrangements

• Publish a simple lead sheet with melody, lyrics and chords on SMPPress and set the price as low as they will let me (this means I will make somewhere between 20-40 cents when a copy is sold – not doing it for the money).
• Offer harmonies, countermelodies, bass lines, strumming instructions, fingerpicking, etc. free to my students, ensemble members, and Patrons at patreon.com/uke (i.e. my own original material and the parts of the song that cannot be copyrighted – chords, bass, harmonizations).

Where does this leave me with the Disney conundrum? My group can buy their own copies of a songbook and then I can write out some bass lines, counter tunes and harmonies for them. Problem solved.

Post filed under All UkulelePlay! Blog Posts.