We all know that songs need to be unique. You can’t take someone’s melody or lyrics and call them your own.
Most songwriters know, though, that chord progressions aren’t generally protected by copyright. So that’s certainly one element of a song that you can take and use, guilt-free.
If you’re trying to develop a lyrics-first songwriting process, but aren’t having much luck, give this ebook a read: “Use Your Words! Developing a Lyrics-First Songwriting Process.” Right now, it’s FREE with your purchase of “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle.”
You can also use someone else’s title — usually. Even though titles are not typically protected by copyright, I’d recommend you steer away from calling your next song “Hey Jude”, “Rolling In the Deep”, or “Blowin’ In the Wind.”
Is there anything else that you can borrow or “steal” from someone else’s song that won’t get you in trouble? One of the most helpful parts of a song to take and use might be another song’s formal design.
By “formal design”, we’re simply talking about the structure of a song — the arrangement of verses and choruses and any other optional bits of someone else’s song.
How is borrowing a formal design helpful? In some cases, you may have snippets of musical ideas, but not be sure how to fit those ideas all together. Seeing how someone else solved that can be very helpful in your own process.
If you find borrowing another songwriter’s solutions a bit restricting, you can take parts of songs that are otherwise copyright protected, and manipulate them. Here are 3 quick ideas:
- Take a well-known melody and play it backwards.
- Take bits of lyric and change certain words to create something clever, humorous or thought-provoking. Weird Al does this when he “recreates” songs, and since copyright laws allow for parody renditions of songs, you can have a lot of fun with this without worrying about being on the wrong side of the law.
- Borrowing the feel of a song. Sometimes you get inspired by the general performance ideas that other singer-songwriters come up with. While being mindful that there is a limit to how much you can do this (remember “Blurred Lines?”), you can certainly take the tempo and basic backing rhythm feel and see where it takes you.
Generally speaking, though, the best way to keep the ideas flowing is to be listening a lot to music. The more you listen, the more your own sense of creativity and musical imagination extrapolates on those songs.
Written by Gary Ewer. Follow Gary on Twitter.
Sometimes all you need are lists of chords to get the songwriting process started. The Essential Secrets of Songwriting 10-eBook Bundle includes “Essential Chord Progressions” and “More Essential Chord Progressions.” Use the suggested chords as is, or modify them to suit your own songwriting project.
Hey Gary,
I have a question. So I wrote a song that has completely different lyrics and completely different subject matters (Christian based). However Verse 1 & 2 has the same melody as a famous song (not the chorus or bridge they’re completely different and original) that most people would recognize if they’re paying attention. Would this be a problem to get “copyrighted” or be played in church and possible end up on YouTube? The melody works so well with the chorus and I would hate to change it but I don’t want to ruffle any feathers either. I feel as if I’m borrowing the melody because it works so well with chorus and I’m not using the lyric or the actual subject matter. However, I want to do it the correct way and not cause any legal problems. Especially if we record and post on YouTube.
Thanks!
Hi Bradley:
I’m afraid that would normally cause copyright issues. There are famous examples of borrowing bits of songs (mostly unintentionally), and incorporating them into a new song. I’m thinking that Sam Smith’s “Stay With Me”, is one such song, and their solution was to share royalties with Tom Petty because the song shared melodic ideas with Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down.”
It’s possible that YouTube’s algorithms may flag your song, and even if it doesn’t, anyone who has copyright of the original song from which you borrowed melodic ideas could possibly take issue. Their solution would likely be to ask you to take the video down. If your song became big in the Christian music world, and made money, they might also make a legal claim to share in the royalties.
Any time that I’m writing something that seems too similar to something already out there, I’ve always found that it’s actually pretty easy to come up with something just as good by changing the melodic shape or rhythms of the original tune. Hopefully you can come up with something that allows you to promote your song without worrying about others noticing the similarity between your song and others out there.
-Gary
Thanks for the awesome website and tips and advice you give.
I’ve wrote a song with completely different music, completely different lyrics, and completely different subject, but the way I sing the song (harmony) possibly melody and structure of the song lyrics and chorus is similar to another song, which this be a copyright breach?
thanks for your time in reading and responding to this message.
Generally speaking (and keeping in mind that I’m not a lawyer), the latest cases that seem to be successful are ones where it’s been proven that the song is similar enough to be reminiscent of an already-existing song. So as long as it’s still unique enough (I know that’s vague, but this is the way copyright law seems to be applied these days), you should be okay.
Gary
Hello I am writing a song with different lyrics, it uses the same chords E major, A major and B7 chords but the original also uses an extra chord which is a C7 chord, my song doesn’t. Also my song (the harmony) sounds like a song already out there. So my question to you is, can I still have this as I want to write an album and put my song on the album?
Hi John – I’m not a lawyer, but my understanding is that if elements of your song are close enough to an existing song, you might have trouble. The fact that your song has an extra chord may not be enough to make it sound unique. The best advice I can give is to play the song for a few other people, including those who might be in the music industry, to see if they notice a similarity. Hope this helps.
Gary
Thank you your messaged really helped. Also is there any law where you can play a song after the artist is dead after so many years or something like that?
If a new artist used the song’s instrumental track and put his own lyrics in it and recorded it and upload it on YT and now on Spotify, should he be cooyrighted for it?
Let’s say I wrote a song then realized the melody of my song sounds similar to another song(my song has different lyrics though and a slightly different melody note arrangement).
Realizing that, I decided to add/subtract more or less notes from my song’s melody thus changing my song’s overall melody note pattern. So now I have confidence that my song’s melody is not identical to the other song’s melody that’s already made. Also I changed the key of my song.
To add, the song that was already produced is not by a huge or popular artist.
If I gain notoriety with this song, could there be legal repercussions?
Again, my new melody still remains similar”ish”, but I have tweaked around approximately 15-20 notes thus making sure that the 2 songs do not have identical melodies.
Thankyou and would love to hear your opinion!
~Ryan
If it got as far as a legal case, a judge/jury would decide if it crosses the line of being plagiarism. As I understand it, though, (assuming it’s too similar for comfort) it’s more likely that someone representing the other songwriter would contact you to have a discussion. Unintentional plagiarism does happen, and it’s usually worked out. It sounds like you’ve done the right things to make your song original enough. One thing you might do is to play it for a friend or two and see if they recognize it. That’s the test.
-Gary
Can you quote a short lyric from another song?
I wish to use a very short snippet of someone singing acapella a few words from a known Merengue tune. I’ve managed to find the publisher of the original song in order to see if I can get permission. But no response. Thank you in advance.
No, you probably can’t. A non-response is not the same as consent. Whoever wrote the lyric (or the copyright holder if it’s not the same) must give their clear consent.
Gary
Can i take 5 seconds of a melody and use different lyrics but it sounds like the original melody just with my words over it. Not the whole song just a brief part of the chorus
Can a gender switch be used in a song ?
Yes, a gender switch is a pretty common alteration with given lyrics.
Gary
I’m looking to make a song and release it. Can I reference a song within a song? Using a few lines in the chorus? So it’ll be a few of our own lyrics then say “singing, (other song lyrics) in the sun” if that makes sense?
Hello
I’m looking to use the lyrics and melody from and existing songs chorus in a new song. Eg. “the answer my friend is blowin in the wind, the answer is blowin in the wind.”
The rest of the new song has its own melody separate from the copyrighted song.
I’m confused as to what rights to purchase?
It’s not a sample.
It’s not a parody.
Its in part a derivative work
I want to do it the correct way, and I’d appreciate any guidance.
Thank you
SoulSonic/Mark
Alchemyst Audio
I think it depends on how far your songwriting project is going to go. If it’s for singing at the local cafe, you’re probably going to be fine. But if you’re saying it’s not a parody, I think you’d better get some official legal advice on this one. Borrowing a phrase — two or three words arranged in a well-known way that might have also been used in the songs — is probably fine. Borrowing 16 words, arranged in exactly the same way that a pulitzer-prize-winning songwriter/lyricist has previously done in a Billboard-topping tune is probably crossing the line. Purchasing may not be possible if the writer isn’t selling.
-Gary
What about a song that references Bob Dylan several times throughout and the has the following coda:
Could it be so simple then
Will we find out in the end
That the answer was blowing in the wind
Asking for a friend
You may want a lawyer’s opinion, but my thoughts are that it would be fine. A passing reference (and using “was” and not “is”)… I can’t think that it would cause a problem.