Apple’s iCloud and iTunes Match: The Concern of One Composer

If you have been an ardent user of the Apple ecosystem in the area of pro-audio applications, perhaps you have used iTunes on some level. True to the intuitive nature of the Apple OS and iOS, the sharing of music between Apple’s Garageband and Logic applications to iTunes, makes the mp3 production process a snap. iTunes, for the composer, is not only storage for favorite artists, but also the storage for original compositions as well, in sound recording form. The ability to carry one’s own compositions on Apple digital devices, enables a composer to portably review his or her work on the go. If the composer is active, hard drive space on most Apple digital devices has always been an issue for music lovers and composers with big music libraries. The problem? To put it succinctly, there is never enough storage capacity on most Apple digital devices, which is why I keep a 160GB iPod Classic in my studio inventory.

In my case, with the addition of the 160GB iPod with me, carrying an extra digital devices is always a gamble that one device may be lost; it has happened to me. Why do I discuss this? Because if my 16G iPhone 4 could carry all of the music that I wanted, then I wouldn’t need to lug around a second device, my classic iPod in this case. Enter iCloud and iTunes Match, where any downloaded song or ripped song in your iTunes collection will be accessible, via the cloud, though wifi, 3G or 4G networks. If the music in your iTunes library is sold in the iTunes Store, which with Apple’s massive catalog may very well may be the case, then you can access a digital copy from Apple through the cloud for your listening pleasure without it being physically on your device as a file. If you have music in your iTunes library that is NOT in Apple’s catalog, it is then uploaded automatically, from your personal computer and into the cloud. With this service, worrying about the hard drive capacity of your Apple digital device  is now a thing of the past.

However, for the composer who uses Apple’s desktop music production tools, uploaded music into Apple’s cloud becomes a potential problem with a life of its own; a big problem. The issue isn’t published and copyrighted musical works, it’s unpublished and non-copyrighted musical works that belong to the composer. For me, iTunes represents an active archive of musical works that I have composed, in different stages of completion. This distinction of this segment of my library is common: most are awaiting certification by the U.S. Copyright office. Through iTunes Match, this body of work could potentially be uploaded into a cloud to be accessed by God knows who, if options to deselect these tracks are not in place. In short, a composer is unwillingly uploading a precious, unprotected commodity into Apple’s cloud.

Let’s be honest, what are the odds that someone will actually breach Apple’s security, take that one song and it for it to become a hit? Good question. What is an acceptable amount of risk for a person’s life’s work, another question to consider. I don’t know an active composer, who isn’t very protective of their unregistered musical works: their intellectual property. Particularly ideas and works without a copyright. It is difficult enough to protect and enforce musical works that have a certificate of copyright and registered with a performance rights organization, let alone works with no legal owner in the eyes of the U.S .Copyright office. You see, a song doesn’t have to become a mega hit to be a great value to a composer, it just has to produce some revenue. That’s not a very lofty goal, but it’s realistic.

The biggest fear for an independent composer is not that people have his or her music necessarily, but that it will land in the hands of the ONE person who knows what to do with unregistered musical works: the thief who could actually establish legal ownership of musical works. I’ll be honest, this fear is definitely mine. I cannot imagine the sickness and heartbreak of my stolen work reaching some level of success; it’s too much to even imagine. I’m not trying to be an alarmist, but I’m trying to make a point. I’m certainly not implying that Apple hasn’t considered upload preferences, but yet, I don’t know that for a fact.  I’m sure that details of this service are still to come, but too much uncertainty makes this composer a bit afraid.

I realize that finished professional recordings are produced outside of the Apple pro-audio ecosystem, but my scenario is not farfetched. On the composition/songwriting side, Apple’s native music production applications are used by many people from hobbyists to professional musicians as songwriting tools. Apple’s pro-audio applications are more powerful than some people realize, which is my point for concern. In case that you’re not aware of this, you can compose a serious piece of music in Sibelius 6, save it as a MIDI file, drop it in Garageband and make an fantastic 32 bit demo with Garageband’s simple but deceptively powerful, effects, mixing and simple mastering tools. An mp3? No problem, I send that mixdown to iTunes and get a demo of a music work. If Apple allows the user to select what music not in the iTunes catalog that can be sent into the cloud then problem solved. The last portfolio of music works that I sent to the U.S. Copyright Office took seven months for a certificate of registration to be returned. All you need for a copyright certificate in the United States is a sound recording. Not a finished and polished studio album, just a recording that distinctively, for the most part, establishes chord progression and melody. My first songwriting tracks are a bit more complicated than just a piano playing a song.  Mp3’s can sit in iTunes for quite a while, uploading these musical works to a cloud, with no legal ownership is a scary thought. If it can be “uploaded”, it can certainly be “accessed” from other places other than its origin. We live in the day of breaches, just because they are common, doesn’t mean that this composer shouldn’t be shrewd.

iPhone Music Apps: BeatMe BPM (Beats Per Minute) Counter

Here’s a very simple and handy little app that has come in handy on a number of occasions. It’s called BeatMe BPM Counter. So what exactly does this little app do? Simple, by shaking the phone or tapping on the screen (in quarter note rhythms), it displays how many beats per minute that you are tapping or shaking. I’ve used this when either determining the tempo of a score as I begin to write one or in a performance situation. With much experience, you can get the feel of tempos in beat per minute increments, but this provides a good way to get it pretty close to perfect. You can download BeatMe BPM Counter in the app section in the iTunes store for .99 cents.

iPhone Music Apps: iReal Book

With mobile phones becoming a place to carry books and printed materials in digital form, is it any wonder than music books would follow suit? Enter iReal Book. In case that you do not know, the Real Book is a compilation of jazz charts comprised of numerous jazz standards, 900 as of the writing of this entry. The collection of books is so vast that it would roughly be as thick as a telephone book for the City of Los Angeles and a workout to lug around. On the iPhone app version, the musician can sort these tunes by title, composer and style. You can even create custom play lists and have support with forums. There is even a level of customization by editing colors, customizing the nomenclature for minor as a small m or a symbol. You can also sort by first name, last name or vice versa and even set a transposition by default for whichever instrument that you play.

The actual charts are not in sheet music form, but read as a basic transcription of chord symbol and repeats with measures that divide merely by line. Each tune has the meter listed at the beginning of the score. It is important to understand that that the arrangement does not read as an actual score on your iPhone, but more like a jazz-styled lead sheet. Regardless of its format, it is very effective. After much use, I find this to be quite helpful because your jazz standards are as close as your mobile phone. You can even change the key of the standard and the entire lead sheet will transpose to the desired key. 900 tunes multiplied by the number of keys that you would realistically use in performance equals a great way to keep a lot of digital transcriptions in a neat and small package. At $7.99 for the download, this is a miniscule price for a big return, if you’re an active jazz musician, I don’t know how you would not want this on your iPhone.