Keeping tabs on free music

Ever since Napster and its file-sharing brethren first ran afoul of the music industry, it… Ever since Napster and its file-sharing brethren first ran afoul of the music industry, it has seemed like Big Music couldn’t vilify itself in the eyes of its consumer base any better if they’d tried. Or maybe they are trying. It certainly seems so of late, as in the past few months the industry has expanded its copyright-lawsuit fatwa to restrict not just how we can get music, but how we can learn it as well.

This time around, it’s the US Music Publishers’ Association that’s looking for a clampdown. For the past few months, the MPA has been focusing its legal crosshairs on the hundreds of song lyrics and guitar tablature Web sites that have long flourished on the Internet as a way for aspiring musicians to learn popular songs.

For those not familiar with guitar tablatures – or “tabs” as they’re popularly called – they are simple, number-coded transliterations of regular sheet music, written usually for guitars and bass guitars, which are both easier to format and read than normal music notation. The Music Publisher’s Association sees guitar tab sites as an encroachment on their copyright turf, and has already succeeded in closing down a handful of very popular lyrics and tab sites, such as Mysongbook.com, which I used to go to myself.

The MPA has been working toward this for a few years now, but this year they’re finally busting out the serious legal guns, issuing shut-down-or-get-sued letters to tablature site owners. And some MPA bigwigs are even calling for harsher repercussions beyond lawsuits. In a recent BBC article, MPA president Lauren Keiser declared that he not only wanted to see the Web sites shut down and fined, but also have Web site owners thrown behind bars.

Fresh from its battles with file-sharers, the music industry ought to be rather aware of how unpopular shutting down free lyrics and tab sites is going to be. That’s why they’re trying to sell the familiar bogus mantra of “we’re doing this for the artists.” David Israelite, president of the National Music Publishers’ Association, claims in the article, “Unauthorized use of lyrics and tablature deprives the songwriter of the ability to make a living, and is no different from stealing.”

Now, I could see some semblance of a case being made for popular musicians losing substantial income because of pirated recordings, but I never heard of musicians depending on published sheet music for the bulk of their earnings. To imply that free tablature sites are going to put our favorite artists out on the streets is laughable; the very fact that a musician has become popular enough to get his or her work published as sheet music is a good sign that that musician is already making plenty of dough. It is principally music publishers themselves whose wallets are thinning, of course, and they should just say so instead of acting like they just want to give more money to artists.

Eliminating free tablature sites probably isn’t going to drastically change the fortunes of the MPA’s sales anyway, because it’s not like most online tablatures are perfect substitutes for professionally made sheet music. While guitar tabs are helpful in figuring out how to play a song, they’re usually not very accurate note-for-note. Some tabs I find really suck, in fact, and they sound butchered as hell when played. Accurate tabs do exist out there, but by and large free tablatures are better regarded as guidelines rather than rules. Some tablature sites also have forums and message boards where tabs are gradually improved through input from users – in such cases, the users are generally amateur musicians giving each other tips. These aren’t people who are going to invest a lot in volumes of sheet music, unless they get to the point where they want to be professional. And it sure doesn’t help them get to that point when you do things like shut down Web sites where they discuss and exchange advice on improving music techniques.

Instead of trying to stamp free tab sites out of existence, the music industry should think about actually competing and trying to improve itself by offering the services that free tab sites do and improve upon them. Many bands don’t have their music officially published in the first place, because it’s not profitable enough; to fill that vacuum is one reason why unofficial tablature sites came into existence. I don’t expect it to happen anytime soon, but it would be a wonderful gesture on the MPA’s part if they’d try to set up official Web sites with a comprehensive variety of accurate tablatures for cheap prices. Otherwise, you can count on people continuing to find ways to circumvent the music industry’s iron-fisted rules. After all, when the legitimate industry isn’t even going to offer adequate services for everyone, what can you do but work outside legitimacy?

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