The role of copyright in the digital age

One of the most controversial topics in the music world right now is what the role of copyright and ownership should be as we enter the digital age. Anyone can publish, create, and share their own music online. With the recent improvements in technology, what is the need for record labels anymore? Streaming, file-sharing, downloading, and artist-to-fan sites such as Bandcamp and Soundcloud demonstrate how easy it could be. Since the creation of vinyl back in the early 20th century, the concept of copyright has gone through dramatic changes, becoming more significant and controversial since the introduction of the intellectual property laws that were set up in the late 90’s as a response to Napster and similar websites. Brazil has gained a reputation for having some of the freest laws regarding copyright and ownership of art with its adaption of Creative Commons. There are fundamental questions that arise at the basis of copyright regulation in art. Should all art be free? Isn’t all art essentially based upon past works, making copyright pointless and only a way for record companies to exercise their diminishing control?

A good starting place for anyone interested in learning more of the basics of this topic is the documentary Rip! A Remix Manifesto, which details the change (or lack thereof) in copyright regulation following the rapid transition from analog to digital. Musicians have been taking from other musicians for probably the entire history of music. Traditional folk songs and ballads, which never used to be written down or copied, would change and grow as those songs were spread around the world and as other musicians added lyrics from their own experiences. How is that any different from hip-hop artists sampling sections of Led Zeppelin or The Beatles into their songs? What about artists like Girl Talk whose instruments are laptops and who create music based entirely upon past works but still make something new?

Several large-scale stories were resolved last year that show how important copyright is to anyone who listens to music. These include Marvin Gaye’s family getting compensated for “Blurred Lines” by Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams, Tom Petty getting credited as a songwriter on Sam Smith’s song “Stay With Me”, and Taylor Swift’s decision to remove all her music from iTunes and other streaming sites unless they negotiated certain terms with her. As these are all controversial, some people will tell you that the artists were still creating original music and some people say that they they were obviously stealing. I find that much of the time I don’t even know what to think about cases like these, which can take many years to resolve. The New York Times has a debate room showing the diverse opinions between musicians, lawyers, and critics. Axis of Awesome’s “4 Chords” brings up an interesting dilemma as they play a medley of around 50 pop songs from different generations that all have the same 4-chord structure. Should all the songs in their video be sued because they sound alike? There is also an interactive website called Sounds Just Like where anyone can send in songs that sound similar and the site puts together a side-by-side comparison of both songs. Where should the line be drawn between stealing and just using generic chord progressions? Is the only thing stopping artists from suing other artists more often just their personal preferences?

I have just begun to really dig into learning about the state of copyright. The way business and ownership functions is an issue that I have to be very aware of as I enter the notoriously messy world of music. Maybe at some point in the future I will be accused of copyright infringement for sounding too much like an older song, or maybe someone I wrote a song with will claim to be the sole writer. Since I am still an amateur musician and make music as a hobby, I don’t make any royalties or even charge money for my art. I’ve begun to wonder if it some of the problems we are facing in America right now could be alleviated by bringing the public domain back to the front. But even if we somehow manage to create a world where music is feely distributed online and artists can have better control of their works, there are still websites we have to bow down to who will make profits off of the traffic to their site. Streaming services like Spotify and Pandora have confusing payout methods meant to create loopholes for themselves and large record companies like Universal and Warner Bros. to get more money than the artists who created the music. Musician David Byrne, formerly of the Talking Heads, suggests ways we could improve streaming services to better benefit artists’ art. Thinking about copyright, while confusing at times, is fundamental in considering how we can improve the internet to provide the best opportunities for artists to get their voices heard in a sea of information saturation.