Music Rights

The music industry is constantly changing. Understanding your rights as a musician and the music you produce can often feel like an endless labyrinth that's difficult to navigate. Here at Frettable, we're musicians too; we understand what it's like to feel marginalized by large corporations in the music industry and we care about preserving and protecting the rights of your music, while also creating a platform for musicians to share ideas and collaborate in an online forum.

Your music in Frettable

1. You own the music you make

When recording in Frettable, you maintain the intellectual property rights and copyright for your recorded audio as well as the MIDI, MusicXML, and sheet music transcribed by our AI. That means you're free to do whatever you would like with your songs without worrying about fine print. Record your songs elsewhere in a studio, release them on an album, share them with friends. Frettable isn't interested in turning a profit by selling your audio or sheet music to third parties; we'll leave that up to you, the artist.

— Terms of Use - Section 16

“ Musicians own music because music owns them ”

— Virgil Thomson

2. Private and public songs

When transcribing using our website or app, you can choose whether you want your song to be private (your eyes only) or public (shared within the Frettable community on our website and app). When transcribing your songs publicly using Frettable, you give us permission to show your music on our app and website. If you choose to keep your songs private, that's okay too: we keep them private to you and/or your band.

— Terms of Use - Section 14

— Terms of Use - Section 16

“ What you learn from working with other performers and musicians is invaluable, really, and can only help you grow. I mean, if you spend your whole life focusing on yourself, you're not really learning much ”

— Damon Albarn

3. We will remove songs that infringe on your rights

Our apps have a "flag song" function that allows you to report a publicly posted song that infringes on your intellectual property or copyrights. After reviewing, we have the ability to remove the infringing song. This includes published musical works. For example, if someone publicly transcribes a note-for-note guitar solo by The Beatles, it should be flagged for removal. This process involves some community effort due to the large number of songs processed by Frettable.

— Terms of Use - Section 15

“ As musicians and artists, it's important we have an environment ... that really nurtures these gifts. Oftentimes, the machine can overlook the need to take care of the people who produce the sounds that have a lot to do with the health and well-being of society ”

— Lauryn Hill

Knowledge is power

What is copyright?

"Copyright is the exclusive legal right to produce, reproduce, publish or perform an original literary, artistic, dramatic or musical work. The creator is usually the copyright owner." [Citation] "Copyright covers both published and unpublished works." [Citation]

How do I get it?

A common misconception is that you need to fill out a stack of forms to register for copyright in order to protect your work. The short answer is that you don't need to, at least in Canada or the USA. "Your work is under copyright protection the moment it is created and fixed in a tangible form that it is perceptible either directly or with the aid of a machine or device." [Citation] For example, your audio recordings and sheet music recorded in Frettable constitute proof of copyright.