Spotify Invents AI Tech That Will Police Songwriter Plagiarism (musicbusinessworldwide.com) 47
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Music Business Worldwide: According to a document published last week, Daniel Ek's company is seeking a patent for its "Plagiarism Risk Detector And Interface" technology, which pertains to "Methods, systems and computer program products..for testing a lead sheet for plagiarism." As explained in the filing -- and as our songwriter/musician readers will already know -- a "lead sheet" is a type of music score or musical notation for songs denoting their melody, chords and sometimes lyrics or additional notes. Spotify's invention would allow for a lead sheet to be fed through the platform's "plagiarism detector," which would then, "having been trained on a plurality of preexisting encoded lead sheets," immediately compare the composition in question to all other songs stored in its database.
A set of messages would then be displayed -- describing a detected level of plagiarism regarding "a plurality of elements" such as a chord sequence, melodic fragments, harmony, etc. of a song. The AI software would also potentially calculate "a similarity value" of the song in question vs. other songs in the Spotify lead sheet library. These technology could work the other way around, too, says Spotify's filing, reassuring a songwriter that "the melodic fragment [of your song] appears to be completely new." One particularly interesting element of this is that it would take place in near-real time, allowing a songwriter or composer to tweak elements of their work to avoid infringement before they (and/or their record label) spent the big bucks on recording a final version. Spotify's filing adds that "in some embodiments a link to the media content item that might be infringed (e.g., a track of an album) is provided so that a [songwriter] can quickly... listen to the potentially plagiarized work."
A set of messages would then be displayed -- describing a detected level of plagiarism regarding "a plurality of elements" such as a chord sequence, melodic fragments, harmony, etc. of a song. The AI software would also potentially calculate "a similarity value" of the song in question vs. other songs in the Spotify lead sheet library. These technology could work the other way around, too, says Spotify's filing, reassuring a songwriter that "the melodic fragment [of your song] appears to be completely new." One particularly interesting element of this is that it would take place in near-real time, allowing a songwriter or composer to tweak elements of their work to avoid infringement before they (and/or their record label) spent the big bucks on recording a final version. Spotify's filing adds that "in some embodiments a link to the media content item that might be infringed (e.g., a track of an album) is provided so that a [songwriter] can quickly... listen to the potentially plagiarized work."
Wait wait wait.... (Score:2)
Re: Wait wait wait.... (Score:5, Insightful)
It will be hilarious once studios have realized all their songs sound the same and they must sue each other to death.
And even more hilariois once they realize that every song has been done before (Damn, that was, I think, the actual stsrt of the Bootsy Collins quote I meant to mention in my other comment...), and thery cannot make eny new song *at all* without getting sued. :D
The shitty matrix multiplier function ("AI") won't care.
Re: (Score:1)
Which means the defendant will pay for lawyers to find a non-copyrighted earlier piece that matches the similar music beats, just with older musical instruments, including native music from all over the world. Lawyers win and of course the big players who can afford lawyers to steal what ever music they want from poor independents who can not afford lawyers. Corporate greed wins again.
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Looks like it's time to start writing microtonal music [youtube.com]. Literally making new notes. Should buy us a few more years before hitting Peak DMCA.
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And even more hilariois once they realize that every song has been done before (Damn, that was, I think, the actual stsrt of the Bootsy Collins quote I meant to mention in my other comment...), and thery cannot make eny new song *at all* without getting sued.
Read Spider Robinson's short story "Melancholy Elephants [spiderrobinson.com]" for a solid take on this, published in 1982, that won the 1983 Hugo Award for Best Short Story.
The Blues (Score:3)
just don't feed it blues sheets unless you want a meltdown.
- js.
All copy from Pachelbel's Canon anyway! (Score:3)
If you don't believe me [youtube.com] :)
I'm very confident by the way that this algorithm will also be applied fairly to music produced by the big names in the industry, and songs will be flagged. Uh huh.
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They will have to feed classical music and public domain progressions to the AI and/or other algorithm to detect, annotate, and exclude them from songs or at least put a flag to indicate that. Parts that match public domain stuff can get excluded that way. Should be fairly simple and obvious to do. Of course some fool(s) will get awarded a patent for that too.
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They will have to feed classical music and public domain progressions to the AI and/or other algorithm to detect, annotate, and exclude them from songs or at least put a flag to indicate that.
They will have to feed EVERYTHING into it. Sorry, that wistful acoustic ditty you uploaded bears a striking resemblance to Skinny Puppy's "Last Call".
Also, four chord songs (Score:2)
Every pop hit is a generic four chord song [youtube.com].
It isn't plagiarism of you didn't know the "origin (Score:5, Interesting)
History is full of parallel inventions simply because time was ripe and communication lacking. ... or even care. Just look as "Four Chord Song" by Axis Of Awesome... Might also be a song sung on the river Congo right now and for centuries, whose melody and groove perfectly resemble your latest composition. Does that mean either one isn't allowed? Of course not!
Bootsy Collins said there are only so many combinations of notes that are possible (and sound good). Over time you are bound to have endless repetition.
And with all the songs out there, nobody can be expected to know them all
There. Ruined the entire premise of your stupid idea right there, in one small comment.
This nonsense only is a thing at all, because some assholes think it is OK to assign "ownership" to thoughts. (For purposes of leeching money forever, from the same milked-to-death idea, Disney-style.)
That is the only problem that needs to be eradicated here. "Hashtag KillMickey", as the luddites say today.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
History is full of parallel inventions simply because time was ripe and communication lacking. ... or even care. Just look as "Four Chord Song" by Axis Of Awesome... Might also be a song sung on the river Congo right now and for centuries, whose melody and groove perfectly resemble your latest composition. Does that mean either one isn't allowed? Of course not!
Bootsy Collins said there are only so many combinations of notes that are possible (and sound good). Over time you are bound to have endless repetition.
And with all the songs out there, nobody can be expected to know them all
There. Ruined the entire premise of your stupid idea right there, in one small comment.
This nonsense only is a thing at all, because some assholes think it is OK to assign "ownership" to thoughts. (For purposes of leeching money forever, from the same milked-to-death idea, Disney-style.)
That is the only problem that needs to be eradicated here. "Hashtag KillMickey", as the luddites say today.
First you have to keep in mind that these are lawsuits so the evidence needed isn't up to criminal case standards (think Judge Judy) and you can't really ban a song, just take all the infringing artists royalties and some damages. It used to be the case that the plaintiff had to show that the defendant had access to the original not from the music alone, now with reference to spotify and youtube some cases has been judged from just the similarity of the music.
I'm so glad minkind is spending time & effort (Score:3)
Truly it was worth living into 2020 to see such wonders.
Dibs (Score:3)
Dangers of unlimited copyright (Score:2, Redundant)
Melancholy Elephants [spiderrobinson.com].
(it's about a 10min read)
Pay the Piper (Score:1)
And to help out ... (Score:2)
One particularly interesting element of this is that it would take place in near-real time, allowing a songwriter or composer to tweak elements of their work to avoid infringement before they (and/or their record label) spent the big bucks on recording a final version.
The software/service come with a thesaurus.
[ For those that don't know, a Thesaurus is a dinosaur. It uses flowery language
to extricate itself from dangerous situations. -- Dennis Miller ]
[ For those that don't know, Dennis Miller used to be a comedian, then he became
a far-right conservative pussy after 9/11, then he became an irrelevant dinosaur. ]
Someone else already copyrighted all of them (Score:3, Informative)
Someone else already copyrighted all the melodies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Software beat you to it (Score:3, Insightful)
Pied Piper? (Score:1)
And SF Becomes Reality - Again (Score:2)
I read a science fiction story, many years ago, about a society that had indefinite length copyrights and automated plagiarism detectors. Eventually, with a long enough baseline, every sequence of notes has already been used, and nobody can write any "new" music - because it has ALL been done before. Songwriters were committing suicide because there was no "new" music.
The story was written as a dystopia, so let's HOPE that it doesn't get so bad here.
Re: (Score:2)
And the author " the_other_chewey " nailed the story that I remembered. Thank you,sir!
Re: (Score:1)
It will be worth it, if... (Score:2)
They get successfully sued into bankruptcy for being idiots. Because thatâ(TM)s what this is, idiocy.
Perhaps the only thing worse is corporate abuse of copyright.
A bad idea because... (Score:1)
Sometimes the plagiarized song gets published first on Spotify. Then what? This can become a real PITA. My case: PIG plagiarized an old demo of mine and they published a really shitty version of one of my best songs, thankfully they left out the best parts of it (Malfunct - Sickness).
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Sometimes the plagiarized song gets published first on Spotify. Then what? This can become a real PITA. My case: PIG plagiarized an old demo of mine and they published a really shitty version of one of my best songs, thankfully they left out the best parts of it (Malfunct - Sickness).
Is your song available for listening somewhere? (I believe I've read an interview with Sow long ago where she said that the reissue of Je M'Aime as Pig/Sow was done without her knowledge by Raymond Watts because he needed money for drugs so plagiarizing someones demo wouldn't be out of character).
This just in (Score:2)
Police Songwriter Plagiarism? (Score:2)
I'll be alright, then! (Score:2)
It's obvious that the only way round this is to write weird music. I've got such a head start on this that I feel sorry for you guys!
Will be fun (Score:2)
There's only so much you can do with 7 existing Notes.
Yay! (Score:1)
Good bye Country Music (Score:1)
I saw this a few years ago... (Score:1)
...when it was called Pied Piper.
ANY set of notes? (Score:2)
Then prior art should override all of it, including what the studios put out takedown orders for.
Will this great product start flagging chord changes? In with case, say, no new blues songs are allowed to be written?
Assholes.
A nightmare for the RIAA (Score:2)
There are only so many combinations of "love" "booty" "love love love" and "love love love love" that can be sung before you step on other 'artist"'s lyrics.
Wow, I thought I'd never see the day where the RIAA would eat it's own feces. What an awful* way to self destruct.
*Awful for them, an awesome shit show to watch for me! :O)
Hey everybody, my name is Content ID and (Score:1)
Not how copyright works (Score:2)
That is so wrong in so many ways. This just isn't how copyright works. It only protects against copying. If you independently come up with the same melody or chord progression as someone else, that's not infringement. You aren't copying them so copyright is irrelevant. You don't need to check every song ever written to make sure no one else has written something too similar.
Beeo Bloop (Score:2)
I COMPUTE ... THAT EVERYONE IS PLAGIARIZING A GUY FROM 1304 NAMED HENREY O' THE LUTE.
What about that guy who randomly generated every possible combination of melody, though?