.... if the right software can be developed that would tell you where you might have heard something like or the same as your own composition that would be great. .....

You guys've probably heard of this iphone app:  http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/07/13/iphone-app-review-shazam-helps-you-name-that-tune/  I've read all you need is a few seconds worth of sample for the comparison to execute effectively.  This app of course is looking for an exact match, but probably won't be long before someone extends the algorithm for just the purpose contemplated in this thread.  Can't imagine how that would work technically.  Then again, never would have imagined that a small digital clip of a published recording could find a match within the entire Apple database after few seconds' search...

FWIW,  Ron


EDIT  - I'm assuming the comparison is between digital footprints, not ID tags.  Don't know how tags work.  Are they actually repeated continuously in the stream?

SESAC is starting to use software that identifies when any of it's music catalog is broadcast:
 
http://www.sesac.com/News/News_Details.aspx?id=994
 
I wonder if there are any instances where the song is mis-indentified because it sounds like another?
 
 

 
Sorry for off topic but:
 
Hey JohnnyV,
 
That's a cool old Masco amp you have there. I used to have an ME-18. Wish I still had it. There is something about those Masco amps from the '40s and '50s that was just magical.
 
 
 

ChuckB


Not to be contrary, but actually there are 12 notes ...

And I thought there were just 5

A few years ago there was a New Zealand Digital Library project called Meldex ("MELody inDEX") that was supposed to do this very thing.  You could go to their webpage and it would somehow take your snippet of melody (either hummed or entered somehow) and it would match it up with songs in its database.  I think I actually tried it once.  Problem is, that was six or seven years ago, and the two links I have (http://www.nzdl.org/musiclib and http://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~nzdl/meldex) don't work anymore (at least as of today).
 
Found an old paper about it though:
 
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/may97/meldex/05witten.html 
   

Play it for your woman, they'll tell you.

12 notes? Damn, no wonder I'm having problems! Just testing to see if you where awake, really!
I wrote a song called "Long Way Down" back in the 80's. Sarah McLachlan stole it from me in the 90's but I let her get away with it because it sounds totally different and the words are not even close and then she changed the title to Ice Cream.  
Then you can play some songs backwards and also be in trouble with the music biz lawyers.

Off topic ( but what isn't here)
The Masco is the ultimate harp amp, it also helps heat my studio. It served duty as the PA head at the Christina Lake Dance Hall in the 40's with the big bands. I found it in a closet there and asked if I could have it. Had it worked over by a tech. My Avatar is not my Masco but from the net, mine is a little different. They were made in New York by a dude named Mark Simpson last one made 35 years ago. 

Glyn Barnes

ChuckB


Not to be contrary, but actually there are 12 notes ...

And I thought there were just 5

But there are only three chords, right?

last one made 35 years ago. 

That was when amps only went to like 2 or 3 right?

Well the question becomes ...how many notes can you copy in sequence before you cross the line and get sued?

There are so many songs that sound similar...and no body is getting sued.... to my knowledge.

You can copy titles, and groves all day long ..... it's when you copy lyric and melody that you cross that fine line.  Oh yeah...and samples too.