RIAA blocking tabs

If someone were to listen to a song and write down what they heard on a piece of paper, what would they call it? An exact copy of the song, or their interpretation, how they herd it. Well the Recording Industry Association of America, also known as the RIAA, has a different idea; early in 2006 they have started to shut down all tablature websites. A tablature, or more known as a tab, is a simple form of sheet music for guitar, bass, and drums. Some very popular sites to find music tabs at are websites like mxtabs.net or taborama.com. Recently however, they have been shut down by the RIAA because they see it as a copyright infringement from the original song. With the RIAA fighting to shut it down and other musicians wanting to use it and sites getting shut down, the whole controversy has gone world wide.

The way tabs are created is when a musician that plays bass, guitar, or drums, listens to a song they like and they writes down the music they hear; they then write the tab on a web site and its there for free viewing of other musicians. Now in mine and thousands of others opinion, we think of this of only an interpretation, its not like they took the exact sheet music of the song copied it down and posted it for free. However, the RIAA says no, this is a direct infringement upon copyrighted music. So now they call in the Music Publishers Association (MPA) and choose to take action upon every place that offers this free “sheet music”. The RIAA has yet to view tabs are only an interpretation of music, not a direct copy of it.

The musicians that use tabs love it. It’s a great way for them to expand their ability to play music and to enjoy the music of other popular musicians. Its interesting how I say popular because if the RIAA had it their way, we would walk on down to guitar center and pick up a booklet of sheet music from the popular musicians. However on tabs web sites, there thousands of bands on there; the only way music stores keep stock of sheet music is if the band is popular. This is what turns musicians to tabs, its free, it sounds pretty close to the song, and it’s easy to get, no stocking problems.

When I buy a CD and listen to it, eventually I think “wow I wish I could play this”. Well guess what, no, I can’t. I find that funny because in doing this the RIAA is wishing to stop from getting cheated out of its money by keeping people from using free tab websites. So they find the websites that are giving out these free tabs and they shut them down, some say ok, but some fight. Most like right now are shut down, except for a couple. I hope that before they are shut down, this controversy ends.

So in the end with the RIAA shutting down sites along with the MPA and musicians still striving to learn that new material, who knows when this will end. However I believe that there are many ways that we and the RIAA and MPA can come to a compromise, it’s just a matter of time before the ultimatum is reached. Also, one more point I would like to add: the people that want to play the songs are fans, they want to learn that bands songs. This is the sort of popularity groups would kill for, and I don’t think the RIAA alienating this group of fans by shutting down tablature websites is that good for musicians.