App to avoid plagiarism

[Valérie_D]

Dear fellow musicians,

I did not see a thread so far on the subject; is there an app where you can play a melody and it will recognize if it's copyrighted?

I was wondering because my melodies are often quite simple so there's always a risk of involontary plagiarism.

Thank you!

Valérie

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[NekujaK]

I'm not aware of any such app, but there are a few ways of leveraging existing technology to approximate this:

1. Temporarily upload your melody to YouTube (as a video - keep it private, and then delete it after it's uploaded). Whenever a video is uploaded to YouTube, the ContentID system checks for audio matches and will point out if it recognizes a match. ContentID isn't always accurate, so take the results wth a grain of salt.

2. Temporarily upload your melody to SoundCloud. Like YouTube, SoundCloud uses its own copyright-checking technology.

Be aware that the above methods don't check for actual notes. The matches are based on audio fingerprinting, so it's possible they may miss a melodic match if it's played by a different instrument. But still, if a match is found, it can be useful information for you.

 

[Zedcars]

Both Midomi and SoundHound allow you to sing or hum a melody and it will try to match the tune against existing melodies from published songs. There is a free ad-supported and a paid version of SoundHound. I haven’t tried either so don’t know how well they work.

Edit: Looks like Midomi is using the same technology as SoundHound (as it says “Powered by SoundHound” on their website).

 

[Andy Og]

Andrew Lloyd Webber is so afraid of unintentional plagiarism that he has a permanent musicologist on his staff whose job is to make sure he hasn't written something somebody else has already written. I can understand the fear. How can composers possibly know everything that has ever been composed?

 

[babylonwaves]

Play your melody into the Shazam app. If Shazam recognizes it, it will point you to the original source.

Shazam doesn’t work like this. It takes a sonic fingerprint, which is the Sonic character and not the melody.

 

[bongadonga]

Yeah, Shazam really does not work for that. I tried singing melodies in to find a piece of music I just heard and could not identify. That does not work at all.

Better suited is something like this:

Musipedia: Musipedia Melody Search Engine

But I am not sure how well it works. Whenever I tried to find a title from aural memory, it did not work very well to find something. But it does give you some known melodies based on what you put in. And that might be a good starting point to see, how many melodies are similar to yours and how similar they really are.

On the other hand, I wouldn't be to worried. Chances are that nobody will really care if you accidentally use something quite similar to something existing. That would only happen when you really land a hit or do music for a financially very successful movie. Then, somebody might get the idea to make some money out of a similarity. At least, that is what usually the prerequisites for anybody starting a aw suite.

I have been copied in one cases by the next guy who got a job, but I did not start a law suite about it, although I was pissed. I was pissed, because it was obvious that he just copied me from the last project for the same client. That couldn't have been an accident. He just used my idea cause the customer liked it or maybe even told him to make something like it. It made me angry, but it would not have been worth it to start a law suite for that.

And on the other hand, when your melodies and harmonies are REALLY simple, there are gonna be hundreds of similar works out there. It is not going to be a problem. It only becomes a problem, when you deliberately copy something less simple that is famous and try to make money from being similar to that. That might lead to somebody wanting to sue you.

 

[NekujaK]

Shazam doesn’t work like this. It takes a sonic fingerprint, which is the Sonic character and not the melody.

Yeah, Shazam really does not work for that. I tried singing melodies in to find a piece of music I just heard and could not identify. That does not work at all.

Good to know, thanks

 

[babylonwaves]

And on the other hand, when your melodies and harmonies are REALLY simple, there are gonna be hundreds of similar works out there.

That's a real problem in music. Catchy music is simple. If I need to "copy" something, I always try to rearrange everything but the melody. Then I delete the melody and try in many cases I can find something that suits the arrangement better - usually it's a fairly different melody.

To comment on @Valérie_D post: I don't think, depending on how simple the melody is, that there is a safe route.

 

[Valérie_D]

Thank you all, my question was really based on melodies played in it, not audio fingerprinting.

I always keep my projects with the dates but I suppose it's absolutly possible for composers to write something identical or very close and not be aware of it. The reality of creative people

 

[nitrateaudio]

I am surprised there is not an AI tool that will do that yet?

Now given the limited number of notes and combinations in Western music, unless you are doing asian micro-tonal music, there is probably a very strong chance any melody you make has already been done many times in the past.

 

[soundofmaw]

I am surprised there is not an AI tool that will do that yet?

Now given the limited number of notes and combinations in Western music, unless you are doing asian micro-tonal music, there is probably a very strong chance any melody you make has already been done many times in the past.

Since AI tools are built on plagiarism as their foundation, I’m guessing having a tool to root out plagiarism wouldn’t be in their best interest

 

[rgames]

Just release it to the world.

If somebody thinks it's a copy (and they care) they'll let you know.