Copyright

Wadha Al Nabti
Music Production 9
25th November 2013

Copyright

The copyright law is made to identify who made the song and who owns it so no one else can claim it. They are designed to protect artists from unauthorized copy or use. Without copyrighting any one could place an artists song in their commercial or on the radio without any credit to the artist himself. To copyright a song all musicians whether recording artists or songwriters must copyright it at the Library of Congress in America. When you buy a song an ITunes you are only buying the private rights, which allow you to listen on your Ipod, car, etc. You are not in any way allowed to record it, or use it for your video on the web. Albeit you can use the song if the composer is dead for more than 50 years, which is when the copyright expires.

Louis Tomlinson (Recording Artist)

If you were to use a copyrighted song in a video or on the radio, you must get a license. Since radio’s play about 500-600 songs daily they go to the two most major companies, which give out these music licenses called public performance rights. The two major companies, who are BMI and ASCAP handle about 4,000,000 songs, respectively. A radio station must get what’s called a blanket license to play any song they want for the whole year. When you cover a song, compulsory licensing kicks in in which you have to pay a statutory royalty rate, you have to tell the people who own the copyright, and have to pay a monthly royalty statement. Although you are not allowed to make any changes at all in the song or else it is considered “derivative work”. Another way to get a license for a copyrighted song is either by going to a regional agency that is specially made to get you a license and they are in charge of copyrights. Also you can go to BMI or ASCAP’s website and state    how you’re going to use the song and they will tell you how to pay them.  

Here is the website for BMI: http://www.bmi.com/licensing/

Website for ASCAP: http://www.ascap.com/licensing/

Examples of other recording artists, with songs copyrighted: 

Praise Beyonce, mom, model, and a recording artist

One Republic, a band  (please praise new album)

Sources:

-      -  http://www.premiumbeat.com/resources/music-copyright-laws-the-basics

-     -  http://www.howstuffworks.com/music-royalties2.htm#

-    - http://www.wikihow.com/Copyright-a-Song#

-    -  http://www.reach.net/~scherer/p/copyhelp.htm 

   -  http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/music-licensing.htm

#8

Wadha Al Nabti
Music Production 9
20th November 2013

Process Journal #8

My aim for this week continues to be learning how to play the piano in a basic level. It will also be my aim for next week because I want to be so good in playing the piano that I can play in a mall. This week was very dull, monotonous since in the first class we spent on a presentation that didn't make that much sense to me and consisted of music videos. I believe that Mr. Ball was attempting to make us feel better by showing us songs that have a steady beat throughout the whole song like Viva La Vida and if he could make a hit song out of it, so could we. The other lesson was Mr. Ball telling us what our new groups were, which was probably the highlight of my week ( you now could guess what a boring life I lead). My group consisted of Reem and Apoorv whom I know minimally, any who we continued the lesson by attempting to say if we liked the intro of the song or not and how we wanted to change it. We used the intro of my old group since its the same station. I think what didn't work this lesson was firstly that my group had very different taste in music. Secondly that I was being very bossy and I was getting very irritated from their suggestions and how they ruined what I attempted to fix. For example when I wanted to fix the solo guitar that habiba did by limiting the gaps to make it sound more professional Apoorv attempted to do it and ruined the piece all together. 

"It sounds very clear" Reem Abdulmajid

Thank you Reem for that, but I wouldn't have been able to make it sound crisp clear without the help of yourself and Apoorv

Reminiscing about the past: 

Hello

If you are reading this welcome. :D 

#7

Wadha Al Nabti
Music Production 9
13/11/13

Process Journal #7

My aim for this week was to try play on the piano or contribute to the final product. I believe the only thing I do is just the editing not really doing that much into the song if we're being honest. The editing mainly consists of me attempting to pan and quantising the beats so they all sound like a melody put together. The aim I can set for myself next week would have to be how to differentiate the different keys on a piano or know the basics of the piano. This was the final week to end finalise our 30 second intro. We didn't make it to 30 seconds, but hey its quality over quantity no matter what.  The song consisted of a rock drummer and a techno/rock synthesizer so that it would fit the style of the written lyrics, which obviously revolves around the key word ROCK. Also Habiba added in a really good guitar solo in the end of the song to make it a real rock song. Since we are keeping in mind that many of the best rock songs involve a guitar solo a great example would be "smells like teen spirit". What didn't work was that I feel like I'm leaving everything to Habiba and Yara mostly because they've been playing piano for years, while I don't even know what abc keys are on the keyboard that has lead to minimal contribution on my half. 

"Beats aren't together" Samid

Thank you for your feedback first of all, but it's a little too late seeing as its due this week

"Nice, but you need to make it smoother" Maha

Although you're always negative when ever you give feedback to our projects I will just say kill them with kindness thank you Maha.

"Your recordings fit well with the beat of the drums" Ella

Thank you Ella, we as a group were aiming for the techno piano part to bop its way into the song with the help of the beat of the drums, basically we wanted the drums to introduce the techno piano, but in a musical way. (i don't know how to explain it.)

 The solo, which lasted eight seconds:

Attempting to place the parts of the beat into the green highlighted part so when I loop it the ending fits well with the beginning

The drummer, who was Anders was chosen to play in our song. We chose Black Veil, but decided to make it a bit more simple.

#6

Wadha Al Nabti
Music Production 9
4/3/13

Process Journal #6

My personal aim for this week is to create a beat with drums that would stick to a person forever. For example the beat for Halo has stuck with me from grade 4 and I aim to do just that. That is because I want to remembered for something I want my footprint on the sand of time even if it has to be through music, which I would adore. This lesson we continued on our song introduction, which was meant to last 30 seconds. This is an assessed assignment and it should include a harmony, melody and lead. My group had realized that our song was very messy and just didn't sound good together. We deleted both pieces we made by hand, which was dub smash (gritty funk) and synthesizer (Tweed Picked) then we added a rock drummer and also created our own piece with the guitar and it sounded great thanks to Habiba and Yara the musical geniuses. We made the song so that it would work with the lyrics and how we think it should sound like and I think it's just perfect. 

Feedback:

"Quite messy, totally different genres than each other, big NO" Hayaan

Thank you Hayaan for your feedback I'd like to say that I agree with you and we had deleted the two tracks so don't you worry child.  

"The drummer that you chose fits really well with the guitar part" Sara Al Thani

Thank you very much Sara for your kind words and I'd like to thank Habiba for choosing that drummer, which made it very unique by adding tamborines with it. 

Pictures:

Before Editing:

After Editing:

#5

Wadha Al Nabti

Music Production 9

2nd November 2013

Process Journal #5

My aim for this week is to know how to make a song that when you hear it your ears fall in love with the help of EQ. Also my aim is to slowly know how to play the basics on the piano and know the basic notes. This week I was asked to create a 30 second song with harmony, melody and a backing meanwhile changing the default key setting and the default bpm setting. Also we had to continue experimenting on the EQ with our song. Everything worked well except that for the first lesson both of my teammates weren’t in school so I didn’t do much on the song except edit a little and added a few bits, but not too much change. That is because I don’t like doing anything without my teammates consent because this will be their final product too.

“It was a very lively beat, which made me feel alive inside” Anoud Al Madheed

Thank you Anoud for your feedback and we added the bass to let the song have depth and you obviously responded to that

“It is a good melody line in a different bpm and key (150 plus E flat major) the next thing to do would to add an appropriate drum line and it was good EQ on the base line” Mr. Swords

Thank you Mr. Swords for your feedback we have taken it under consideration and then decided that we should add an appropriate drum line, which made our song perfect.

Me and Habiba working on the project and seeing what we need to edit:

 Me thinking about what to change in the EQ for the song to make it perfect: