Elliot thank you for posting this. I've been composing for over 10 years, joined dozens of composer fb groups and this is the type of question I ask over and over, and no one answers it. So thank you very very much for this
Elliot, I love your channel. I'm one of the "young arrangers" who is actually an oldster T Sax player with little formal music education. I'm arranging for a smaller, 7 piece band (8 when we have a singer). I know you are intending your channel for the big band arrangers, but I take from it what I can, and I feel I'm learning a LOT. And, my wife thinks you're "cute"! Thank you!
Thank you Elliot! I re-arrange a lot of charts to fit my band instrumentation. I always give credit to the composer on the music itself and if it is performed in public, where it came from.
Another thank you to Elliot! This is a classic perennial question without a well-known definitive answer.... but you nailed it! Thanks again, and congrats on a great channel!
This is great thank you so much! What if you sell your PDF arrangements of music? Patreon (as you might know!) allows you to sell products on your page and I'd like to sell some of my classical and medieval arrangements to my followers (medleys, rep I've turned into etudes with fingers/bowings etc.)...but I'm confused about the copyright. What are your thoughts? THANK YOU🙏 subscribed!
Harry fox deals with mechanical licensing- not actually permission for arrangements. Most of your advice is actually how the practical side of the music business works- but in a video about copyright and arranging you should mention that permission is actually required for to arrange a cover song, as well as publish it. And there are companies that are aggressively policing the educational venues for unlicensed printed arrangements.
I think this was humorous…back in the 90s, I played in a septet where we were all composing and arranging. Many originals, many not. Our sax player was prolofic and arranged tons of classic tunes, but then Horace Silver’s Hard Bop Grandpop came out. He borrowed a tune from it :-). We’d self-produced three CDs, and the third one had Horace’s tune on it…my arrangement of Abdullah Ibrahim’s The Wedding was on it too. The sax player did the right thing and contacted them for permission to release the recordings (even though it was just a self-produced run of about 200 CDs). Abdullah didn’t seem to mind, and I think we sent him a small check. Horace was the interesting one. Our sax player had a fairly long conversation with Horace directly. Horace showed much interest in our septet, the instrumentation, the gigs we did, prior recordings, etc. Then he asked about the current production run. Then charged us, to the penny, exactly what we owed him.
I agree with your general sentiment. However, Tresona is on the hunt - on RUclips - for unlicensed versions of songs whose licenses they administer, and their catalog of popular music is vast. Perhaps a clarification would be a suggestion to arrange a dozen tunes, but don’t share the recordings - even of a school concert - in a public way like RUclips without understanding the potential downside.
Perhaps. But judging by the VAST array of cover versions of popular songs that fill RUclips, I don’t think the risk is high. The reward is HUGE. Arrangers need to be arranging. This is how we get our skills together, our chops strong. Don’t be discouraged.
@@PandemoniumBigBand yes, arrangers need to write. No doubt. But there are risks involved per Tresona and it is reasonable to let folks know (1) that these risks exist and (2) how to not draw attention to yourself in a way that could get you in hot water. This does not at all mean that you should fear arranging - we just need to be smart about it.
I know I'm a bit late to the party, but please answer me if you see this. I want to start a RUclips channel where I post my covers and arrangements on the piano, guitar and maybe even singing. All music would be done by me, but it'll be covers of existing songs. I don't wanna make money from it, just doing it to inspire the people and to inspire myself. I wanted to give free sheets, but wouldn't even do that if it meant more trouble. So, if I post an arrangement of a popular song without monetizing it and without giving out the sheets, how safe am I?
Revenue should be shared. Arranging is a creative variation and an original sound recording, often better than the original. It has value beyond the simple copyrighted melody.
Can I totally change the verses and hook of the original song but keep the structure of the melody work or song that makes it popular ? Hopefully you understand my question?? Example…… Basically if I changed all I want for Christmas to all I want for thanksgiving…. Don’t give me no fruit cake or anything like that, give me turkey stuffing and football 😂😂😂 Kinda Just Like That
I wrote a new version of I DREAMED A DREAM to put with 10 of my original songs, to make 100 cds to give to others . Am I doing something against the law . ??? PLEASE REPLY. THANKS
I really, really don’t understand any of this. I want to create arrangements of existing music for choir/a cappella, record my own multitracks for RUclips, and publish sheet music. I want to obtain proper licenses to do all of this, but the way I understand it, I can’t make a dime off of all the hard work I’d put into all of the above? In fact, it sounds like it would all be at a severe financial loss to me.
Yep. Music, unfortunately, is a huge money-losing scheme. But if you intend to build a career as a performer, educator, arranger (choral or otherwise), producer, etc. then you need to put yourself out there. Everything you release becomes part of your body of work and your musical identity. You might lose money releasing profitless multitrack, but someone might watch it and decide to hire you for their paying project, take lessons with you, etc.
What if I’m taking a classic rock piece and reducing it to a instrumental Latin jazz trio? I’m not really adding new material, but stylistically, very different arpeggiation, and syncopation.
If you are going to release it as part of an album, you should definitely pay for the rights. Things are MUCH easier if you aren’t selling sheet music.
If you aren’t directing a division 1 college band you’ll probably fly under the radar. But if you want to do it legit (and you really should) there are some writers that know much better than me how to get permission.
If you arrange an extant piece of music, you are entitled to NO royalties, only the money you might earn from a commissioning body. AND, you better have prior permission to arrange that extant piece before you try to do anything with it. Composers and/or copyright administrators who license those copyrights for the composers (or the estate of a composer) have total control over that copyright. All this other jabber is either not true or just simply bad advice to give tp up and coming arrangers. Yes, this law is violated all the time, but that doesn't change the facts. Sorry to interrupt.
Could you perhaps tell if it's legal for me to transcribe (for instance) an improvised solo by Chet Baker and sell the sheet music for that transcription?
That is not legal. Chet's solo is considered his own composition. That said, a publishing company (Hal Leonard, Alfred, etc.) could negotiate and help you sell a book of transcriptions. BUT, if it's for your personal use/enrichment, transcribe to your heart's content.
If you are releasing your recording on RUclips, it will get “demonetized”, but should remain watchable. If you are releasing the recording to Spotify, etc. you will need to pay for the rights. But services like Distrokid and TubeCore make the process very easy.
This was a great video! But what if I'm performing it live and making money from the performance?. Let's say I am a medium size artist and I want to perform the Mariah Carey song?
The venues are supposed to pay money to either BMI or ASCAP to cover the performing right. They are supposed to submit playlists, but most venues don’t. As an artist you only need to think about copyright when you record.
What if a Movie Director request an arrangement of say..Autumn Leaves for her movie? Assuming the movie is released and makes some money. Who pays the Autumn Leaves guy? The director/producer or the film composer/arranger?
I don’t have any experience, but in my research, I think the music supervisor of the film would have to pay the composer/publisher of Autumnleaves, and then the music supervisor would pay you a separate fee for used of your recording. Perhaps they would even pay for your studio session It’s all negotiable. However, the Autumnleaves composer could simply say no, or have such a huge fee that the movie could not budget for it. I guess that wouldn’t be a problem with autumn leaves, but could be a problem with Michael Jackson song, for instance, if you were to cover it. How has your experience gone this far?
Your channel is an absolute goldmine. Thank you for everything you’re doing!
Thanks Trevor!
Elliot thank you for posting this. I've been composing for over 10 years, joined dozens of composer fb groups and this is the type of question I ask over and over, and no one answers it. So thank you very very much for this
You are very welcome!
Elliot, I love your channel. I'm one of the "young arrangers" who is actually an oldster T Sax player with little formal music education. I'm arranging for a smaller, 7 piece band (8 when we have a singer). I know you are intending your channel for the big band arrangers, but I take from it what I can, and I feel I'm learning a LOT. And, my wife thinks you're "cute"!
Thank you!
Thank you. I am glad you’re getting so much from it!… also, my wife thinks so too.
Thank you Elliot!
I re-arrange a lot of charts to fit my band instrumentation. I always give credit to the composer on the music itself and if it is performed in public, where it came from.
Good call. If you are only making adjustments to fit your instrumentation, you are technically just reorchestrating rather than arranging.
Another thank you to Elliot! This is a classic perennial question without a well-known definitive answer.... but you nailed it! Thanks again, and congrats on a great channel!
Thanks for this video!
This is great thank you so much! What if you sell your PDF arrangements of music? Patreon (as you might know!) allows you to sell products on your page and I'd like to sell some of my classical and medieval arrangements to my followers (medleys, rep I've turned into etudes with fingers/bowings etc.)...but I'm confused about the copyright. What are your thoughts? THANK YOU🙏 subscribed!
If the source material is from the classical or medieval periods, you should be safe.
Harry fox deals with mechanical licensing- not actually permission for arrangements. Most of your advice is actually how the practical side of the music business works- but in a video about copyright and arranging you should mention that permission is actually required for to arrange a cover song, as well as publish it. And there are companies that are aggressively policing the educational venues for unlicensed printed arrangements.
Good advise. My video was meant to encourage young composers to write arrangements if their favorite songs and not to worry about the red tape.
Yes. You are spot on.
I think this was humorous…back in the 90s, I played in a septet where we were all composing and arranging. Many originals, many not. Our sax player was prolofic and arranged tons of classic tunes, but then Horace Silver’s Hard Bop Grandpop came out. He borrowed a tune from it :-).
We’d self-produced three CDs, and the third one had Horace’s tune on it…my arrangement of Abdullah Ibrahim’s The Wedding was on it too. The sax player did the right thing and contacted them for permission to release the recordings (even though it was just a self-produced run of about 200 CDs). Abdullah didn’t seem to mind, and I think we sent him a small check. Horace was the interesting one. Our sax player had a fairly long conversation with Horace directly. Horace showed much interest in our septet, the instrumentation, the gigs we did, prior recordings, etc. Then he asked about the current production run. Then charged us, to the penny, exactly what we owed him.
Happy new video friday!
I agree with your general sentiment. However, Tresona is on the hunt - on RUclips - for unlicensed versions of songs whose licenses they administer, and their catalog of popular music is vast.
Perhaps a clarification would be a suggestion to arrange a dozen tunes, but don’t share the recordings - even of a school concert - in a public way like RUclips without understanding the potential downside.
Perhaps. But judging by the VAST array of cover versions of popular songs that fill RUclips, I don’t think the risk is high. The reward is HUGE. Arrangers need to be arranging. This is how we get our skills together, our chops strong. Don’t be discouraged.
@@PandemoniumBigBand yes, arrangers need to write. No doubt. But there are risks involved per Tresona and it is reasonable to let folks know (1) that these risks exist and (2) how to not draw attention to yourself in a way that could get you in hot water. This does not at all mean that you should fear arranging - we just need to be smart about it.
Very glad I haven't had to deal with any of this yet.
I know I'm a bit late to the party, but please answer me if you see this. I want to start a RUclips channel where I post my covers and arrangements on the piano, guitar and maybe even singing. All music would be done by me, but it'll be covers of existing songs. I don't wanna make money from it, just doing it to inspire the people and to inspire myself. I wanted to give free sheets, but wouldn't even do that if it meant more trouble. So, if I post an arrangement of a popular song without monetizing it and without giving out the sheets, how safe am I?
I think you’re pretty safe
Thanks for covering this!
Revenue should be shared. Arranging is a creative variation and an original sound recording, often better than the original. It has value beyond the simple copyrighted melody.
Can I totally change the verses and hook of the original song but keep the structure of the melody work or song that makes it popular ?
Hopefully you understand my question??
Example……
Basically if I changed all I want for Christmas to all I want for thanksgiving…. Don’t give me no fruit cake or anything like that, give me turkey
stuffing and football
😂😂😂
Kinda Just Like That
I wrote a new version of I DREAMED A DREAM to put with 10 of my original songs, to make 100 cds to give to others . Am I doing something against the law . ??? PLEASE REPLY. THANKS
But what if I want to record a big band cover for a film that I am producing? I would need a synch license, correct?
Yes, probably.
Thank you!
I really, really don’t understand any of this. I want to create arrangements of existing music for choir/a cappella, record my own multitracks for RUclips, and publish sheet music. I want to obtain proper licenses to do all of this, but the way I understand it, I can’t make a dime off of all the hard work I’d put into all of the above? In fact, it sounds like it would all be at a severe financial loss to me.
Yep. Music, unfortunately, is a huge money-losing scheme. But if you intend to build a career as a performer, educator, arranger (choral or otherwise), producer, etc. then you need to put yourself out there. Everything you release becomes part of your body of work and your musical identity. You might lose money releasing profitless multitrack, but someone might watch it and decide to hire you for their paying project, take lessons with you, etc.
If you publish using arrangeme, they care of copyright with no hassle for you, but you only get 10% of sales.
Just the video I needed! Thanks for the content Elliot.
You already know my answer!
What if I’m taking a classic rock piece and reducing it to a instrumental Latin jazz trio? I’m not really adding new material, but stylistically, very different arpeggiation, and syncopation.
If you are going to release it as part of an album, you should definitely pay for the rights. Things are MUCH easier if you aren’t selling sheet music.
This is a question I've been wondering forever, and I just want to somepoint arrange songs for marching band for when I become a band director
If you aren’t directing a division 1 college band you’ll probably fly under the radar. But if you want to do it legit (and you really should) there are some writers that know much better than me how to get permission.
If you arrange an extant piece of music, you are entitled to NO royalties, only the money you might earn from a commissioning body. AND, you better have prior permission to arrange that extant piece before you try to do anything with it. Composers and/or copyright administrators who license those copyrights for the composers (or the estate of a composer) have total control over that
copyright. All this other jabber is either not true or just simply bad advice to give tp up and coming arrangers. Yes, this law is violated all the time, but that doesn't change the facts. Sorry to interrupt.
Could you perhaps tell if it's legal for me to transcribe (for instance) an improvised solo by Chet Baker and sell the sheet music for that transcription?
That is not legal. Chet's solo is considered his own composition. That said, a publishing company (Hal Leonard, Alfred, etc.) could negotiate and help you sell a book of transcriptions. BUT, if it's for your personal use/enrichment, transcribe to your heart's content.
Hi. What about recording covers?
If you are releasing your recording on RUclips, it will get “demonetized”, but should remain watchable. If you are releasing the recording to Spotify, etc. you will need to pay for the rights. But services like Distrokid and TubeCore make the process very easy.
@@PandemoniumBigBand thanks 👍🏼
This was a great video! But what if I'm performing it live and making money from the performance?. Let's say I am a medium size artist and I want to perform the Mariah Carey song?
The venues are supposed to pay money to either BMI or ASCAP to cover the performing right. They are supposed to submit playlists, but most venues don’t. As an artist you only need to think about copyright when you record.
@@PandemoniumBigBand Thank you so much
What if a Movie Director request an arrangement of say..Autumn Leaves for her movie? Assuming the movie is released and makes some money. Who pays the Autumn Leaves guy? The director/producer or the film composer/arranger?
Honestly, if you are in the position of arranging music for a movie you should do everything above board.
I don’t have any experience, but in my research, I think the music supervisor of the film would have to pay the composer/publisher of Autumnleaves, and then the music supervisor would pay you a separate fee for used of your recording. Perhaps they would even pay for your studio session It’s all negotiable. However, the Autumnleaves composer could simply say no, or have such a huge fee that the movie could not budget for it. I guess that wouldn’t be a problem with autumn leaves, but could be a problem with Michael Jackson song, for instance, if you were to cover it. How has your experience gone this far?
Have subbed!