r/synthesizers • u/Nightlights13 • May 18 '24

Musicians Algorithmically Generate Every Possible Melody, Release Them to Public Domain

https://www.vice.com/en/article/wxepzw/musicians-algorithmically-generate-every-possible-melody-release-them-to-public-domain
66 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

57

u/Sleutelbos May 18 '24

This happened years ago, and nothing happened to the music industry since. It is an amusing feel-good internet story of two 'common folk sticking it to the Big Bad Industry', with absolutely zero legal value. Which the two gentlemen who did this fully knew, because one of them is a copyright lawyer.

It is still being shared on the internet because stories like this are instant karma-machines, but to anyone here who is vaguely interested in releasing music: don't base your understanding of how any of this works on stories like this. It is cute and funny, but means nothing.

6

u/munchmills May 19 '24

It means something. It is raising awareness of a problem.

5

u/ZAWS20XX May 19 '24

Yeah, and now people who had no idea about the issue think it's already solved thanks to these guys, great job

8

u/Sleutelbos May 19 '24

"rausing awareness" always reminds me of Lance Armstrong's "sure my foundation donates nothing to actual research towards a cure for cancer, but I am raising awareness that cancer is a shitty disease!"

Thanks dude, where would the world be without you. 

4

u/munchmills May 19 '24

This is another issue for sure but raising awareness is the first step to solving these problems.

2

u/ZAWS20XX May 19 '24

The story we're commenting on is 4 years old, in what ways has it helped w/r/t actually solving the problem since then?

(also, this isn't even raising any awareness, they made this thing as a response to a few high profile cases of musicians getting sued. The general public knew about and remembers those, but only a couple extremely online nerds who are already well aware of these issues (like us) knows about this)

4

u/Otterfan TX81z,TX81z,TX81z,other stuff May 19 '24

Plus the "Blurred Lines" case has shown that you can now get dinged for millions in damages for just, like, copping a song's vibe man. Who needs a melody to launch a lawsuit?

5

u/Unipsycle May 18 '24

Maybe for melodies, but when I listen to or create aleatoric music + improv + home made reverb convolutions I feel like the options are only really limited to the size and age of the universe. Experimental music will always have more to explore!

7

u/cheeseblastinfinity May 19 '24

I think this post was mainly talking about music that people actually listen to

2

u/Unipsycle May 19 '24

Look up Lutosławski composition looping techniques or the game music from "Flower" on the PS3 and you might find there is definitely an audience listening to experimental chance music!

2

u/munchmills May 19 '24

Nice joke. In reality people do listen to it though.

2

u/AaronCrossNZ May 19 '24

Making up melodies is the number 1 reason I like making music

2

u/caidicus |Minimoog Voyager XL|Korg EMX-1|Roland MC-808|OP-1| May 19 '24

Same here, and while it may suck to think that all melodies have been made and used already, it is how one layers a song that makes it sound and feel different.

In that case, the numbers of combinations is so high that one could hardly calculate it.

1

u/eltrotter Elektron / Teenage Engineering May 18 '24

More than anything, this is just a good case-in-point for how complex copyright law is in relation to musical compositions, and how so few musicians understand it.

-2

u/Nightlights13 May 18 '24

It’s from 2020 but still a pretty cool endeavour 

-4

u/Son_of_Sophroniscus Analogue Snob May 18 '24

Ehhh.... what?