The Songwriter Forum - songwriting reviews, tips and chat
Songwriter Forum => Competitions => Topic started by: Liam on August 19, 2018, 11:32:39 AM
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Hi I've an idea off competition ( it's probably been done before ) we take a well known song lyric and everyone has a go on their own take on it - using whatever chords etc that they want .
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You may run into possible copyright issues there Katie.
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Yeah, I'm pretty sure we couldn't use lyrics from published songs, but we could use titles. Like "Pretty Woman" or "California Dreamin'" or "It's Been a Hard Day's Night", etc (I'm showing my age, right?)
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Maybe something where copyright has expired. I.e Over 100 years old. In 1999 John Peel did an amazing series, The Peelenium where he chose 3 tracks to play from each year of the 20th Century and I loved some of the very early stuff. There are some wonderful lyrics
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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peelennium
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This one should be pretty easy to cover.
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Oh I didn't realise that - sorry
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Not to worry @Katieoasis (http://www.songwriterforum.co.uk/index.php?action=profile;u=22158) . It looks like the problem is already worked out. You can either use titles or full songs that are in the public domain. The Johns Hopkins Levy Libraty has loads of music in the public domain free to download. I haven't read the terms of use lately, but when I was using it regularly that was the arrangement. I sent them donations but they didn't request it.
There are other online sources as well. Some have fees but others are free.
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Ok thanks Vicki - I might take a look at that xxx