I want upload my music to my myspace

[AlphaMale]

It's not THAT great, but I want to protect it from being stolen. What should I do to be able to defend my music so that way if it is stolen I can take legal action. I don't think anyone would steal my music, every time I trip I would have never guessed it either.

[Traver]

Considering Metallica can't do anything about it, I doubt you'd ever be able to do anything about it, either.

[BassLand]

Several things to do. 1-only put a sample of your songs not the whole song. I think I prefer to have whole songs but, 2-always encode the information into your mp3 song file including copyright notice and writer/publishers credits (example ©2008BassicVibeMusic all rights reserved). If you put the notice on your music and someone uses it without permission or license you can go after them plus MySpace does not allow you to copy songs if you choose not to allow it. Look at the guy who posted the song "Chocolate Rain" on the net and became famous.

[Questor]

Anyone can edit out the MP3 tags using WinAmp.

Create a playlist in MP3 (m3u) with the URL of the song in it. Put a link to the m3u file, which will cause WinAmp to stream the song but won't actually let them download it.

[Thunder Pulse]

Originally Posted by Questor

Anyone can edit out the MP3 tags using WinAmp.

Or with a variety of other programs too. It's very easy to do.

[AlphaMale]

Hmmm I should have clarified, I don't care about them stealing the MP3, I'm worried of Musicians stealing my work.

[BassLand]

That is an interesting angle. Do you copyright your music? If the answer is no then, I can see your point.

Someone can buy a CD and plausibly steal the music contained therein but if you protect your intellectual property (which music is...) society and the law give you recourse.

Remember sampling controversies of the last 2 decades? Producers sampled music and rearranged the (then) tape to disguise what they were doing and got away with it since the 1960's.

If I want to get my music heard, I have to put a bit of it out there even if just to prove that I can create something original. If that is the goal of most musicians, I think I have little or less to worry about. I can't get known as a composer if I hide all my compositions for fear of theft.

No, I won't put the whole album on MySpace but a sample of a low resolution piece of music is what I feel is necessary to gain the notice/attention I think my music deserves.

BL