Copyright issues - posting excerpts of your playing on social media

[wiegenlied]

Hello everyone. I was thinking of posting on social media some excerpts of myself playing some classical music for which copyright has expired. However I’ve recently read some horror stories of artists being asked to remove posts because they sound too similar to someone else’s recording of the piece, for which the copyright is owned by Sony or Universal etc. Has anyone encountered this problem? Is it ok to post a short extract (60 mins) of you playing a classical piece?

[robertus]

You mean- "remove your recording, cause it sounds to much like Lang-Lang", etc? I can't image such a complaint would really be sustainable at all. Unless they was an element of your interpretation which could convincingly be identified with someone's, rather than from the music itself. But that is would be a fairly absurd idea, since there are so many different performances and interpretations in existence, which typically derive from what is contained in the score itself.

Sometimes, 'warnings' are issued without any real substance, on the assumption that people will cave in because it comes from a large company.

If you are recording public domain piano compositions, have have the right to post your own recordings.

[andrewuk]

I once had a Mendelssohn (I think) piece removed from SoundCloud because they thought it was a recording by Barenboim (which was rather flattering, of course, but probably just shows the limitations of the algorithm). I told them it was my own playing of a piece in the public domain and it was reinstated with no fuss.

[wiegenlied]

Thanks everyone that’s useful to hear your thoughts and experiences.

[lelle]

It's absolutely OK, all classical music published up until 1927 is in the public domain. It's the companies who use algorithms and claim your recording is one of their artists who are in the wrong. If you get something removed due to a copyright strike you can usually protest and get your recording reinstated as mentioned in the thread.