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How can artists legally use melodies from other songs without direct sampling? 4

Is there anyone who knows how, without sampling other songs directly, artists can still incorporate their melodies into their songs?

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RickBeato
RickBeato
US
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Dec 10, 2024 12:07 pm EST
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Through interpolation, artists are able to borrow melodies from other songs without having to sample them directly. This is wherein they alter the lyrics of the song and rehash the same melody. The new melody is related to the first but is exclusive in its own way. This encourages musicians to use parts of a melody from a different track and use it in their work without having to sample it directly as explicit permission and possibly hefty license fees would be required to do so.

JarosławRymut
JarosławRymut
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Dec 10, 2024 7:54 pm EST
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Replying to comment of RickBeato

If I did it, it would be a "copyright infringement". If someone with expensive lawyers do it, it's called "interpolation". That's the difference.

Maxume
Maxume
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Dec 10, 2024 8:00 pm EST
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Replying to comment of RickBeato

I'm not a lawyer but "interpolation" is in fact part of US copyright law. It's when you insert part of a copyrighted song into another one and it falls under derivative works. To do it legally, you have to obtain consent from the author of the original song.

Xcoder112
Xcoder112
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Dec 11, 2024 10:28 am EST
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Replying to comment of RickBeato

In Germany, if you want to use another song for your own song, you need permission of rights owner to sample or modify it. You only need no permission if you just cover it. That is, if you take the song as it is, same melody, same harmonics, same lyrics and just re-interpret it with you own band (you may slow it down or speed it up or change the beat or add new instruments, as long as the song is still recognized as the original song), you don't need permission and nobody can stop you from doing that but you still need to pay royalties to all the rights owners. Yet if you want to make a completely new song out of it, you will need permission, as that is like modifying the original song, there's no way around that and you will surely get sued if you try that without permission.

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