3 ms·

This is pretty nice, and there's already a lot of tools out there. I've built some of my own tools to scrape their tabs and store all my own stuff since I expec

by BowBun 3y ago

This is pretty nice, and there's already a lot of tools out there. I've built some of my own tools to scrape their tabs and store all my own stuff since I expect they will continue locking tabs down more like they already have. I'm a lifetime UG pro member but they keep pushing the envelope too far to monetize more. There's no path for OSS in this domain unfortunately because tabs are often licensed and owned by the publishing companies (or the artists at the very least). Oliver Tree is one dingbat who had most of his tabs taken down at one point despite being a total of 4 chords per song. I'm pretty unhappy with the state of the space considering anyone can listen to a song and write a tab out.

doublemint2203 3y ago
microeconomics man. the product is not optimized for you, it's a tool to scrape $ out of ya. I expect they're just gonna keep going till we're barely happy with it, or a little under that.
immibis 3y ago
There are spaces where free copies of licensed content are widespread. Of course, I don't know anything about them, but I'm sure they provide a valuable force against capitalism.
doakes 3y ago
Artists and/or their publisher own all tabs made for their song? How does that work?
- duped 3y ago
  They don't own the tabs, they own the rights to publish transcriptions of the music.
rozab 3y ago
I suspect it would take a long while for an open source project to run into this limitation, especially if the tabs were distributed soulseek-style. Has anyone attempted to make a fair use for education argument about this? Tabs aren't so much an actual creative work as instructions for how best to play a work. Because there's no timing information it's often impossible to reconstruct the actual music just from them. Chords have even less information, a guitar chord transcription may have no resemblance to the notes actually played in a recording.
- qwery 3y ago
  The transcriptions (created by people) are always going to be seen as derivative works, unfortunately. It doesn't matter how closely it matches the recorded performance. But the fact that text-based tabs remained online (at least more so than transcriptions, powertabs, etc.) is likely because of the lower fidelity. It's not just that the transcription is a (transformed) reproduction of the original piece. The record companies have the (exclusive) right to (sell) the transcriptions, sheet music, etc. of music they hold the rights to. They have that right, regardless of if they are actively or ever going to actually publish any. I would guess a fair use defence would be feasible in the right case, but I'm not sure if that was ever tested in court. Most of the operators of tab websites were just people, they didn't stand a chance. If I remember correctly, Ultimate Guitar was/is one of the few sites that was big enough to negotiate with the MPA.
nyjah 3y ago
Dang, that’s a bummer to hear about Oliver Tree. Love his schtick, never realized he was taking the music so seriously. I always assumed it was intentionally simple to the point of mockery.

by BowBun 3y ago

doublemint2203 3y ago

microeconomics man. the product is not optimized for you, it's a tool to scrape $ out of ya. I expect they're just gonna keep going till we're barely happy with it, or a little under that.

immibis 3y ago

There are spaces where free copies of licensed content are widespread. Of course, I don't know anything about them, but I'm sure they provide a valuable force against capitalism.

doakes 3y ago

Artists and/or their publisher own all tabs made for their song? How does that work?

duped 3y ago
They don't own the tabs, they own the rights to publish transcriptions of the music.

rozab 3y ago

I suspect it would take a long while for an open source project to run into this limitation, especially if the tabs were distributed soulseek-style. Has anyone attempted to make a fair use for education argument about this? Tabs aren't so much an actual creative work as instructions for how best to play a work. Because there's no timing information it's often impossible to reconstruct the actual music just from them. Chords have even less information, a guitar chord transcription may have no resemblance to the notes actually played in a recording.

qwery 3y ago
The transcriptions (created by people) are always going to be seen as derivative works, unfortunately. It doesn't matter how closely it matches the recorded performance. But the fact that text-based tabs remained online (at least more so than transcriptions, powertabs, etc.) is likely because of the lower fidelity. It's not just that the transcription is a (transformed) reproduction of the original piece. The record companies have the (exclusive) right to (sell) the transcriptions, sheet music, etc. of music they hold the rights to. They have that right, regardless of if they are actively or ever going to actually publish any. I would guess a fair use defence would be feasible in the right case, but I'm not sure if that was ever tested in court. Most of the operators of tab websites were just people, they didn't stand a chance. If I remember correctly, Ultimate Guitar was/is one of the few sites that was big enough to negotiate with the MPA.

nyjah 3y ago

Dang, that’s a bummer to hear about Oliver Tree. Love his schtick, never realized he was taking the music so seriously. I always assumed it was intentionally simple to the point of mockery.