Publishing a book of transcriptions

[elkcereal]

Hey everybody

I want to make an e-book of Pino Palladino transcriptions. It would be an assortment of his basslines, probably mostly from his work with R&B artists like D'angelo. Does anyone have any insight as to the legal issues of doing this? From the research I've done, it seems like I would need the permission of the artist that wrote each song, which would probably be a nightmare.

I know other bassists must have looked into doing something like this, but most people probably get discouraged by the prospect of having to figure out confusing legal issues...

[Intenzity]

go talk to Stuart Clayton at Bassline Publishing | Bass Guitar Transcription Books | Bass Tuition Books.

He has done Jamiriqoi, Kiss, and Level 42 transcription books.

He also offers a consultation service for book publishers, this may fall under that.

Also, a music attorney would be able to answer that question.

[PatO]

if you publish it, I will buy it.

[elkcereal]

Ha. Yeah I think a lot of people would buy it. But I'm afraid its nearly impossible for an independent person or company to get/pay for the rights to do such a thing.

I emailed Stuart Clayton and he responded immediately with a very friendly message basically saying that its going to be a nightmare trying to get permission. I guess that's why there aren't more transcription books out there, especially not outside of what Hal Leonard publishes.

[sammyp]

this is a great question...one i've been trying to look into a bit myself ....i want to do a transcription book or two myself.

Here's the basics of the industry that i know of!

All record company music is represented my a publisher (s) - who in turn use specific production companies to put out the printed music .......my wording and understanding is prolly a bit primitive but in a nutshell....

Hal Leonard represents a huge part of the record industry in print music ....so if it's popular, it probably will be illegal unless it goes thru them.

This is why if you go on Mel Bay's site ..the have hardly any transcription books....only method's and arrangement of stuff in public domain. HL pretty much has a monopoly.

You have to find the publisher for every song by Pino you want to include then find out who is the print representative ....most tunes will prolly be hal leonard ......

and ..i might add....hal leonard's work is getting very poor and inacurate .....their newer play along series is gastly full of bad fingerings, wrong notes etc etc.

i called the HL main office once and tried to talk to the secretary and she was like a broken record - "we don't accept unsolicited material" bla bla .....i tried to explain that i wanted to work for them and show some of my work and she just forwarded me to an answering machine ....very frustrating as i have had a passion for transcriptions all my life.

if anyone has a handle on this please respond to the post!

I sent an email to Andy Aledort for advice but got nothing back.

[sammyp]

Originally Posted by elkcereal

Hey everybody

From the research I've done, it seems like I would need the permission of the artist that wrote each song, which would probably be a nightmare.

not the artist but the publisher who grants permission! ...and will take a piece of the pie!

[elkcereal]

So it seems that a company like Hal Leonard would own the print rights for the songs, even if the music hasn't been published in print at this point in time.

I guess I'm going to try to figure out who owns the print rights for some of the more important albums I would be taking songs from. Then I'll try to contact them. Maybe I'll talk to my uncle who's a lawyer.

Another idea is to just make a book of Pino's basslines but leave out any song titles. I couldn't get sued because basslines aren't really copyrightable? I don't know, I remember hearing about a lawsuit over that "These Boots are Made for Walking".

[sammyp]

"So it seems that a company like Hal Leonard would own the print rights for the songs, even if the music hasn't been published in print at this point in time. "

yup ....this is the frustrating part!

[PatO]

Originally Posted by elkcereal

So it seems that a company like Hal Leonard would own the print rights for the songs, even if the music hasn't been published in print at this point in time.

I guess I'm going to try to figure out who owns the print rights for some of the more important albums I would be taking songs from. Then I'll try to contact them. Maybe I'll talk to my uncle who's a lawyer.

Another idea is to just make a book of Pino's basslines but leave out any song titles. I couldn't get sued because basslines aren't really copyrightable? I don't know, I remember hearing about a lawsuit over that "These Boots are Made for Walking".

That might legally work, but I can't help but assume Pino would have to sign off on it. If you are just releasing basslines, no song titles, aren't they considered his intellectual property?

[Intenzity]

Another possibility is just not charging for them. You can post transcriptions for educational purposes and it can be considered fair use.

If you try and generate any income from it, you will hear from the owners of the songs themselves and lawyers etc.

It is unlikely Pino has any say as far as needing permission, the songs are what are copyrighted by the writers and they hold the rights to the song and to their recorded version of it. Since Pino is (usually) a sideman, unless he was given explicit writing credit on the song, he just played bass on it, and then just got a check for his playing and that is it for his involvement, legally. The owner of the song is the one you have to reach an agreement with, they hold the rights, not the players (unless they have co-writing credit).

Either way, you are looking at a very expensive and complicated process since Pino has played with so many different artists, you are going to have to track down each artist individually and get approval from them for the use of their song. At least with the Level 42 and Kiss books, Basslinepublishing only had a single group to deal with, you will have 10 different artists or however many you choose to do, and most of them are going to be MAJOR artists (D'angello, Mayer, Townsend, Young, etc.) on very big labels which means...lawyers. Lots and lots of lawyers.

Stanford Copyright & Fair Use - Educational Uses of Non-coursepack Materials

The educational fair use guidelines apply to material used in educational institutions and for educational purposes. Examples of “educational institutions” include K-12 schools, colleges, and universities. Libraries, museums, hospitals, and other nonprofit institutions also are considered educational institutions under most educational fair use guidelines when they engage in nonprofit instructional, research, or scholarly activities for educational purposes.

“Educational purposes” are:

noncommercial instruction or curriculum-based teaching by educators to students at nonprofit educational institutions
planned noncommercial study or investigation directed toward making a contribution to a field of knowledge, or
presentation of research findings at noncommercial peer conferences, workshops, or seminars.

If you decide to post a PDF of the transcriptions anywhere, please let us know, I would love to check them out. Pino is awesome.

[MalcolmAmos]

As I understand it. The songwriters that get published are under contract. Big period. The music company has the music for sale, if you want a copy they will sell you a copy. It's business.

They, the music company, already have the real thing why do they need your transcription?

I know, I know........