Copyrighting all the melodies to avoid accidental infringement | Damien Riehl | TEDxMinneapolis 

I heard him use several sentences that have been used before by other people.

Lets take this video to 3 million views. So that everyone has 'ACCESS'

Adam Neely sent me on a mission.

Aight.. lets bump this to 3 million bros!!

These guys are musical HEROES.. they've created ACTUAL and FACTUAL melodies that are TANGIBLE and EXIST and copyrighted them as public domain to save the music.. This is what makes them heroes in my book.

This is literaly one of my greatest fears when producing, like how am I supposed to know every melody that was ever written and then avoid them WTF

EVERYTHING IS A REMIX.

I'm just commenting this for the sake of this getting recognized by the algorithm.

Pure genius. On their website in the FAQ they illustrate how it might protect someone from a lawsuit: - July 2019: Our All the Music project (ATM) has mathematically exhausted a large melodic dataset - which contains Melody X - October 2020: Adam writes Song 1 - which contains Melody X - November 2020: Beth writes Song 2 - which contains Melody X - but Beth has never heard Adam’s Song 1 - December 2020: Adam sues Beth over Song 2. Beth argues that because Song 1’s Melody X was in the public domain already - when ATM project generated it a year earlier, or as fact existing since the beginning of time - Adam cannot later copyright something (Melody X) that is either factual or has been in the public domain. So far so good ... but what if Adam had written his melody BEFORE July 2019 ? Can he sue both ATM and Beth ?! Could the prosecutor argue that brute computation for a non-profit goal is not infringement, but Beth writing it in a song is ? Or could the defence convince the jury that the melody can't be copyrighted by Adam in the first place because it has existed since the beginning of time, or is one of a relatively small, finite set of possible melodies and so cannot be unique enough to be copyrightable? It is already very encouraging that Katy Perry won a reversal of the infringement verdict for her song Dark Horse on the basis that "A relatively common 8-note combination of unprotected elements that happens to be played in a timbre common to a particular genre of music cannot be so original as to warrant copyright protection".

As a musician, a song writer, a sound engineer, a producer, and a recording studio owner who also has had a record label in the past, I think this is a talk that needs to be had. Money grabbing litigation is the worst thing this world has created and it has impacted the creativity and freedom of the arts. This reduces the quality of the art we can enjoy and stifles creativity, without even considering the way it can cause the creative well to dry up. We all stand on the shoulders of giants and everything we take in is an influence, there is bound to be a sign of that in any work you create in the future, and that is not a bad thing necessarily. And even if someone does copy your song, are you just passed that theirs is superior? Go out and redo it then and make it even better and use their improved version as the stepping stone to take it rob the next level, or are you not capable of doing that?

Thank you for this service. The idea that George Harrison pulled back on writing music is a catastrophe to art. The ingenuity of this project is really helpful for establishing all art is prior art, especially in our songs.

He should upload recordings of all the music to RU-vid, see if he gets hit by any of the big companies, then sue them when they try to take away his rights.

One day, RU-vid's algorithm will pick this up again. I've done my part, and will be waiting.

*Microtonality walks away quietly, hoping not to be seen*

You have exposed the failings of copyrighted music. Thank you.

This mans picture needs to be on every wall of every music classroom, every recording room, every band room, and any room that deals with music on the planet.

Unfortunately, people are now suing over chord progressions and if a song just SOUNDS stylistically similar.

When I was younger I always wondered if there was a limit on how much music humans can create. This is def one of the more interesting TED talks on here

Fascinating talk, Mr. Riehl! You are effectively showing that a basic melody should not be a basis for a lawsuit. Copyright law in the United States seriously needs reform. I am looking forward to hearing how this holds up in court!

For ages I've wished someone smart enough would come up with something like this. And I found this by complete accident

Spread this video far and wide everyone!

Simply brilliant. Thank you. The "Copyright lawsuits" were already going nutts.

Glad someone talked about this, people need to understand that the language of music is becoming more and more thin and narrow for new writers/composers for not accidentally hiting pre-existing melodies that they didn't heard before or knew existed, alot of artist have filled lots of gaps in that grid that we are left with not much to work with when trying to be original.

these guys may have single-handedly saved the whole music industry. Hopefully as the years go on, more of the already copyrighted melodies are released into public domain as well.

The copyright of every single melody is in good hands it seems❤️😇

Music really shouldn't have a copywrite on it. Unless someone blatanly copies a song, changing it a bunch to make something that sounds similar but not the same is how everything else in the world works anyways. Buildings are constructed from the same design patterns and science is done with the same formulas.

Even if you have heard of the song that you are allegedly accused of infringing, stealing can be a good thing! The only way I think it would be bad would be if you stole every single aspect of another song (i.e. its melody AND its lyrics AND its chords AND its instruments) and then claimed it as yours. A musician must be able to have that blank page! Let's get this to 3 million views!!!!!

The hero musicians have been waiting for....tired of reading copyright lawsuits.

Every RU-vidr that has anything to do with music should be talking about this

As someone who writes music for a hobby, I can't tell you how many times I was working on something I really loved and then realized was subconsciously "stolen" from an already existing popular song. I hate when that happens, it's a huge hit to creative morale lol

This is the best TED ever... Hands down.

You create music after you hear music. And the memory before wont disappear, it will emerge in your music.

This is why copyright and "plagiarism" are utter bullshits, especially when it comes to music.

Science (Math) + Art (Music) + Humanities (Law) = The key to beauty and justice. Raise your kids loving the said branches.

This talk really needed to exist and I hope it will get a lot of attention.

Good stuff. I've been a producer for half of my life and I produced this song once. It was an original idea and I was very proud of it. When a friend heard it, he said that it reminded him of another song. When I heard the other song, mine and theirs sounded exactly the same. I'm no big name artist so my song was never released but if it had, I might've been on the hook for millions. I applaud these two men.

@DamienRiehl thank you for your servicing of the song writing community! You are appreciated and loved!

Thank you Adam Neely for pointing me in this direction. Shared on a bunch of musician fora and crossing my fingers that this monstrosity will come to an end eventually.

Yes! We're getting Closer and Closer to reaching 300 000! If we don't work together, we may never reach 3 000 000!

Damn! So cool to see a good guy out there fighting the good fight! Thank you, Damien, musicians need you!

Watching this so it can hit 3mil for “access” for our future musicians!!

Dude is a legend in music already, thank you and I dont even write music that much.

Anyone else come from Adam Neely’s vídeo?

This is one of those things I've never thought about, but now that I hear it I'm like: Yeah, of course.

Not the hero we deserved, but the hero we needed.

Even silence was copyrighted by John Cage🥴

That was an eye opener and I really appreciate the work..

Copyright laws need a rework, thats for sure

This is a big step for the future continuation of music! It is universal and should be in the public domain. Very good work! Music is life and I think without music (singing) there would be no life, but just existence. Not to disrespect the song witers that already filed copyright law suits, but it just might be that in the (at least) 5000 years of human society even their songs have been sung before. The same goes for rhythms from old tribes. They might not have been recorded, but one might have heard one of them. And what about sounds (frequencies) and rhythmes that float around in space (chemical and physics), those are there since... Maybe far fetched, but in reasoning it just might be helpful.

Cool. Hope your message gets out -- this sort of law needs reform badly. The current state is untenable.

Best and the most crucial music related video on the internet 🙏

Imagine that Frederic Chopin or Mozart could've hypothetically played the melody from Linkin Park- In the End, or any other contemporary melody when playing piano, just by accident or something. It's entirely possible. Mindblowing.

An author named Spider Robinson wrote a short story, Melancholy Elephants, warning of exactly this problem. It was published in 1982.

Good job guys thank you for your service

Excellent mission! Excellent information!

Hmmm for some reason the audio on this is pretty low for me, you should turn it up on the video because THIS MAN NEEDS TO BE HEARD!

Copyright laws are very recent. In the past composers borrowed heavily from one another. Bach extensively used melodies from existing chorales to create incredibly complex and beautiful counterpoint. Next time you try to defend modern copyright law remember that many of the greatest composers of all time would have infringed on copyright countless times had the laws existed in their era.

"Every popular melody that ever existed is those 8 notes" Laughs to the tune of the most covered pop song ever, Yesterday, which deviates from the major scale by the 4th note.

Thank you so much for doing that!!!

This guy is outstanding. Changing the world with a clever idea.

Music cannot truly be owned... As it's all ultimately been cloned... Because every melody and beat... Is most likely a medley of repeat! That makes me wonder... What dimension did Mozart's art, start? Did they beat with an ear? Or hear, with their heart?

Can anybody turn that vid louder? XD

They have all the melodies of the chromatic scale but not all that could exist. By definition: "A melody is a combination of pitch and rhythm". If they really want all the melodies that could exist there are so much other variables to consider than the 7 main musical notes to care about in the algorithm. What about microtones? What if I use a microtone as the reference note on my tunning? (Like we use A on 440hz). This leds us even more frequencies and tone variables because at the end the 7 main musical notes are just a standar name of certain frequencies. (like A=440hz) If we think more deeply the fact that the commonly stated range of human hearing is 20 Hz to 20 kHz and that the chromatic scale only uses 12 specific frequencies for each note if this range we have the remaining frequiencies that could represent the pitch of a note, not a standard one, but by definition (pitch). Quote: "In all technicality, music can be composed of notes at any arbitrary physical frequency." But of course, I get the point of the video and this "notes" are not of common use in music, neither classical, Pop or "commercial music" that is more suceptible of this kind of sues, but saying that they have "all the melodies" without touching this topic is kinda pretentious. (and this is only the pitch part).

I can understand copyright with sound design, but with melodies it’s ridiculous! I love this!!! Ur awesome!!!

Okay, I just got to the bit where he says they've expanded to 12 notes (the full chromatic scale) good. Otherwise it's all a waste of time.

Sometimes, I just love humans. What a gift to the world. Thanks to both gentlemen, sanity may start to creep back into our modern society.

They need more views. Important work they're doing.

just straight up hacking open the core of music and slapping copyright in the face. this is a cause i can get behind.

now if this and adam neely's video reaches 3m views...what now, copyright laws? ->adam neely's vid took me here

When you brute force music to create the Final Fantasy 7 Battle Theme

This is so brilliant and so needed

This should get way more attention.

Down with greedy lawyer's and corporations that inhibit innovation, and let get this Renaissance started!

Imagine an AI writing out every type of Lyrical combination, of around 500-1000 characters, In the English Language, and copywriying it aswell. That's mindblowing already.

Keep on Pushing!

Awesome man keep going it's gonna help every musician in the world

So good!

I dont know Adam Neely ... but I watched his video and here I am. Lets get to 3 Million :)

More people honestly need to watch this

Leaving this comment for the algo because every musician needs to watch this video

17:48 No, We thank you Sir.😉👍

Amazing video and presentation. I always wondered with there only being 12 notes in an octave, typically 5-8 notes per scale depending on the scale and mode. Eventually you would play some of the same notes without even realizing it. Thank you for the more scientific approach. lol. Really cool to look at it from a math perspective.

Brilliant! Well done!

Just giving a good bump to a good cause, good on you guys!!

Excellent idea.

Someone copyrighted volume too?

Keep up the great work man!

Gracias Nohan y Damien.

hey algorithm! look at this! I made a comment!

That was excellent thank you for your work! Yet; I was wondering considering there are more tonal systems than equal temperament of western music with only 12 distinctive tones. The number of permutations of melodies is also infinite, like a paintings number of brush stokes, if we include any tonal system that is existing or when imagining any derivative. One could make up any custome scale in cents or hertz; making the number of notes infinit..? Of course this is more theoretical and might miss any practical application to the real world! Keep making music!

Very very interesting topic. Wow. I didn't know so many artist got sued for their songs recently.

The guy is my hero. Well done.

4:55 is my favorite part!

What a legend

Thanks for doing this!

This is fascinating

Right-click -> stats for nerds -> content loudness: -24 dB :( Had to turn this video waaaaay up to hear it, and even then, it's really quiet.

I'm struggling with this right now. I made a song several years ago with plans to use it as the main theme of a video game. I posted it to the internet, and it got a couple hundred views. Now, a new game coming out this year, the sequel to a very popular franchise, is using the same exact melody. So, I am almost positive that they never heard my song before. What I'm scared of is getting myself sued for using the same melody in a game.

Thank you!!!

Fun Experience I Had 2 Summers Ago: (I don't watch tv or listen to the radio, fyi) I was free style singing, chanting & humming as I usually do because it makes me feel good. And I had a little melody that I was repeating to myself and evolving as I was walking to pick up some Chinese Food for lunch. As I get to the blocknthe restaurant is on a car with it's windows down and speakers blasting is playing a song (I still don't know ehich song it was) and the song had the same exact melody I was singing to myself. I know I jave never heard that song, but this isn't thr first time I experienced something like that. Needless to say, my mind was blown. It's like maybe I was tapping into the Collective Unconscious (or Subconscious)...? The other story is I got this Kalimba made of a half coconut and it has 7 keys which you are free to adjust and tune, so I intuitively came up with what sounded good to me. And I even came up with a little song (melody). Upon playing itbfor a friend, she's like, that's a Buck65 song! Who I have heard her talk about before, but never got into him. Heard 1 of his songs maybe? He's also from Toronto. Anyway, the magical thing was that I listened to this song and the lyrics and wouldn't you kbownit, theybwere very relavant to what was happening in the world (this was like summer or fall 2020). So like that felt like some kinda psychic magic right there. Maybe that's part of what is happening sometimes?