How To Sell A Melody - TranceAddict Forums

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-- How To Sell A Melody

Posted by alexpea on Mar-03-2005 19:14:

How To Sell A Melody (Updated)

I was wondering:
If I want to sell a melody to a pro producer, what do I have to do to get copyright on my melody? If I don't have copyright on it, he might as well just rip the melody. Right?

UPDATE
Btw - here's my melody.
http://www.lydparken.com/download/getfile.asp?fileid=455

Rip it, hate it, love it - I don't care. Music-industry sucks anyway.

Posted by JoeyEnv on Mar-03-2005 21:01:

Try sending him a 32k bitrate of the melody man. No way he'd rip that.

Posted by alexpea on Mar-03-2005 21:03:

Hehe, I can rip all the melodies in the world Joey. If I just hear the melody, I am able to produce it myself. I mean, like typing the MIDI-file So I guess Lo-Fi can't help much

Posted by State of Matter on Mar-03-2005 21:32:

What do you wanna do that for anyways? You're nearly at a level of production quality that could get labels taking you seriously, you're not gonna get enough money to make it worthwhile to sell a melody, you should just finish the track yourself.

Posted by alexpea on Mar-03-2005 21:36:

I guess you're right... I actually got signed some days ago

But I was just wondering what I need to do to get copyright on my melodies. cuz I don't wanna upload (in this case the most beautiful melody I've ever made) a melody on TA and then someone rips it.

I guess I just have to finish the track and try getting it signed. If not, I will post the melody! Or the track, hehe. Since it's finished by then.

Posted by Diginerd on Mar-03-2005 21:38:

Copyright and collaborations are a very ticky area.

The old idea of mailing yourself a package with a recording in it to establish a date of copyright, whilst seamingly a good idea is worthless unless done correctly. Who's to say the package wasn't sealed when it was shipped and you slipped in something to back date it.

If you are in the UK you can use special delivery where all the edges have to be signed over prior to shipping. It's not perfect but should be more than enough to help in a case.

By simply creating a melody or arrangement from scratch you actually obtain copyright AT THAT POINT, proving it is a different matter.

If you are really concerned about someone ripping you off then don't deal with them. More often than not a hunch is right. Take it from someone who has been there. It's not worth it. Your options of restitution are limited unless everything is set in stone with a contract prior, and no one is going to sign a contract if they haven't heard the material. Catch 22.

So what to do?

Get to know the person you are dealing with. Ideally get a "Heads of agreement" at a minimum prior to working together, and work out percentages. Everything can be peachy until money gets involved, then people show their true colors very quickly. Again, take it from someone who found out about this the hard way.

Now that said, anyone who make a living doing this (or at least an income) is unlikely to rip you off. It does remain a posibility though.

A) It's not worth it, as it could seriously damage your reputation and the financial penalties can be large if you have deep enough pockets to fight it.

B) If a collaboration prooves to be successful there is a fair chance that you would be working togeher again on the sequal(s).

On the other hand many creative professionals don't like listening (or reading, or watching depending on your field) unsolicted material from people they don't know. How many times have you heard that sone film is a rip off of some unknown guys script that he sent to "A Big Name" 4 years prior. The chances are that the "Big Name" didn't read it at all, and absorbed the same influences and came up with it themselves. They don't read, listen, watch for exactly this kind of submarine litigation.

Mind you even big names screw this up: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2816253.stm

I'm not a copyright lawyer, so if you do have any serious questions you should go and seek professional help (no, not that kind!) but I can give fairly accurate lay advice, but as every advice is worth what you pay for it, so take everything you read (Including this) with a pinch of salt.

Ultimately, if you want to collaborate collaborate, that's one of the neat aspects of modern music. If you don't then do it solo.

From experience teamwork invariably pays off though unless your are supremely (and I mean supremely) gifted in all aspects of music production. That's before you get into what a label and distribution company does for you.. You have to let go at some point if you want anyone to hear what you do.

If you do start talking to peopel at least keep emails (with headers) so you have some evidence. Also remeber that a Fax is legally binding in many territories. But again i mus stress if you feel out of your depth seek professional advice. In the long un it will be worth it. Trust me on that if nothing else..

Posted by alexpea on Mar-03-2005 21:43:

To be honest, I didn't read much of that ^^^ Too complicated, and I hate such political use of language.

Just tell me what to do in order to get copyright on my melodies god dammit!! Without getting it signed.

Posted by cybernetica on Mar-03-2005 21:46:

quote:
Originally posted by alexpea
I actually got signed some days ago

Just want to say: congrats m8!

Posted by State of Matter on Mar-03-2005 21:53:

quote:
Originally posted by alexpea
Just tell me what to do in order to get copyright on my melodies god dammit!!

What kind of way is that to talk to someone who's trying to help you? You could atleast ask nicely for a condensed version and not be such a dick about it...

Posted by _Marco_ on Mar-03-2005 22:29:

Posted by woscar on Mar-04-2005 22:12:

quote:
Originally posted by alexpea
To be honest, I didn't read much of that ^^^ Too complicated, and I hate such political use of language.

Just tell me what to do in order to get copyright on my melodies god dammit!! Without getting it signed.

What the fuck??? The guy was extremely kind to give you advice from his personal experiences and all you can come up with for a reply was that shit??? If you didn't even took the time to thank the guy (let alone read it), then you deserve to get ripped off.

Posted by EtherealSL on Mar-05-2005 02:42:

congrats on getting signed

hah, let's ask a question, have somebody give you an answer, and then blow that answer off and saying that it was too well written for you, and then requesting a dumbed down verion...

you made yourself look mean AND unintelligent.... c'mon man, shame on you

Posted by alexpea on Mar-05-2005 11:03:

I'm sorry... The thing is, I ain't THAT good in english and the words he used in that reply was just too complicated for me and I got frustrated. And I'm sorry for that. Thanx for a good (?) answer.

Posted by Luke Terry on Mar-05-2005 11:35:

burn the melody or midi to cd, send it yourself recorded delivery + dont open it. copyright sorted

Posted by nzo on Mar-05-2005 16:32:

Sell melodies? What kind of a Fisher-Price genre do you think you're dealing with ? Oh...wait...I see your point.

Posted by gerrycueto on Mar-06-2005 06:32:

Selling a melody has to be the lamest thing I've ever heard. Since when do producers go shopping for melodies? You'd have to be out of your mind if you were a producer buying melodies.

If you're going to sell a melody, it better be damn original. I don't mean original, I mean really fucking original because trance is full of canned melodies, most trance tracks are based off canned melodies, and the only thing that makes them unique are the sounds used.

As for copyrights... send in a short form PA of your melody collection. If a producer hear's your melody and it's been done before, there's nothing you can do about it if they "steal" it.

If I were you, I would concentrate on producing and liscencing your own productions to labels, commercials, or any sort of media instead of selling melodies to producers. If you're a composer that plays an instrument, then sell samples of you playing your instrument (trumpet, sax, guitar, piano, ect)... Us, producers love it when you send us some high quality riffs off your instrument or a high quality acapella, you'd make some good money off of that.

Posted by gerrycueto on Mar-06-2005 06:35:

quote:
Originally posted by State of Matter
What kind of way is that to talk to someone who's trying to help you? You could atleast ask nicely for a condensed version and not be such a dick about it...

Only an idiot who thinks he can make a living off selling melodies would say that.

Seriously, what are you smoking?

Go open a melody store on Main Street.

"sorry the tiesto-style melodies are out of stock. come back next week"

Posted by alexpea on Mar-06-2005 13:02:

Scooter buys melodies all the time. He's rich and pays alot if he wants a good melody.

Here's my melody btw. Rip it, I don't care anymore. Music-industry sux.
http://www.lydparken.com/download/g....asp?fileid=455

Posted by Icone on Mar-06-2005 14:14:

To be honest, there's oh so much trance floating around it could also be by coincidence that someone's melody sounds a bit like yours.

Best thing to do is - when you really want to be sure - to register every track you make to a rights company. We in Belgium have SABAM, the french have BIEM I think. You can always send yourself a copy of the melody and don't open the package if you don't want to pay for anything...

Anyway, you just got signed mate, what's your sudden hate for the music industry? Agreed, it's not the best time to be selling any music, but then again - you can still release your music to thr crowd, no?

Posted by dbl on Mar-06-2005 14:21:

quote:
Originally posted by alexpea
Scooter buys melodies all the time. He's rich and pays alot if he wants a good melody.

scooter is 3 dudes.. not one

and they doesn't always buy the melodies.. they sometimes steal them

Posted by gerrycueto on Mar-06-2005 21:40:

quote:
Originally posted by alexpea
Scooter buys melodies all the time. He's rich and pays alot if he wants a good melody.

Here's my melody btw. Rip it, I don't care anymore. Music-industry sux.
http://www.lydparken.com/download/g....asp?fileid=455

I doubt it. They probably do a lot of sample liscencing... like Shake That... where they have to pay KC and the sunshine band royalties for every track sold, and they sample a lot of 80s tunes and make them highpitched for their chipmunk choruses. As for the melodies, I heard they steal trance melodies, I often see posts here on how the original artists are complaining because Scooter took their melody and totally screwed it over with cheesey fanfares. No one really cares if a trance artist takes another trance artist's melody, but makes it better, they only make the squeal when they mess it up. I don't think Kaycee cared when Kamaya Painters jacked their melody, or when Kaycee jacked Binary Finary's melody, and then Binary Finary took it back from Kaycee and made it better again, or when Pervading Call jacked Kai Tracid's melody, or when Green Court jacked Rank1's melody, or when Envio jacked Armin's melody...man the list goes on. If Tiesto were to totally take a dump on Kaycee's melody, they would have made a big deal over it.

As for your melody, if you're a producer, why the heck do you wanna give it away? Just make a tune out of it.

If Scooter's the only artist you can name that buys melodies, you're probably going to fail in the melody business because that's only one out of the millions of producers out there.

and there's nothing original about the melody you posted... sounds like any melody a euro tune would use after the vocal hook... haha try selling that to Candeejay