Looking for some advice before I start a ukulele tab/chord website!

Hi all,

As a newbie to the ukulele and having been lured in by its beautiful sound, I felt that I could put my expertise as an app/web developer and build something that the community would find useful.

I remember coming across the website ukulele-tabs.com and how all of its content appears to be banned in the UK. I've had a little look around for more information on this and can't find any real information as to why it has banned UK users to it.

I'd absolutely love to start a website such as this which could be accessed to the growing european ukulele community. I assume its down to some licensing issue but as it would entirely be user submitted based tabs, would it require licensing?

Hoping someone with a little bit of knowledge about this can shed some light onto it!

Thanks,
Adam

I'd take a lesson from ukulele-tabs.com and stay far away from building a tab site of any kind.

I have bought guitar tabs off sites that sell tabs per song. it'd be nice to have uke tabs for hard to get songs. I don't mean tabs for just chords or the singing melody. I mean tabs the cover all the 3 guitars and singing melody.

Man, it would be nice to buy uke tabs with harmonica tabs and singing melody all together. I don't think blues music is tabbed too often. so that seems like a good niche.

Uke first, site later. Really.

Ditto on the above. You should go around the block a few times before you start a venture like a website. Just to learn the trips and who's who.

If you are going to start a site you should consider a few things:

How are you going to make a site that has interesting unique content that adds to the 'ukulele web-world without just diluting the current sites? There are so many 'ukulele sites popping up that are mostly fluff.

Posting tabs of songs that are already published in an official book is copyright infringement unless you get hold of the proper licences. Do your homework and figure out if you want to post illegal tabs or try and do it the right way.

If you can pull off something that we will all be blown away by, charge.

+1 to brad above, he has one of the most informative and thorough uke sites there is. Part of why it's so good is because he's a great player and shares a lot of his own expertise. Creates and publishes lessons, interviews great players and builders, and takes the time to edit and organize it all into a well functioning and visually appealing site.

Now if you wanted to build a iPhone reader for the UU forums that didn't cost them anything or take a bite out of future ad sales should they get back into that, you'd be on to something!

AdamUK said:

I assume its down to some licensing issue but as it would entirely be user submitted based tabs, would it require licensing?

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IANAL, but... yes.

JJ

ukuhippo said:

Uke first, site later. Really.

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What I really mean is (and it applies to me to): get away from the computer and start playing. There are already lots of good uke-sites, and it will take you precious playing time to create and to maintain a new site. And there are also the previous mentioned legal issues to consider.

ukulele hunt is ranked 2nd on the ukulele sites thingie, and its open to uk people AND its list of tabs added is now getting quite comprehensive. I'd reccommend looking at that model of site if you were thinking of starting one

One thing I've enjoyed about learning the Uke is that most of the sites I've stumbled upon are truly good. The information is a lot more condensed.

It's not like when I was learning guitar, where there are a million sites and it's really hard to find the good ones.

I'm too new to the uke to see where any of the uke sites are lacking. Specifically in the tab/chord department. If you truly see some gaps in what is available in your country, and you can sort out any legalities, then go ahead and make your dream site.

AdamUK said:

I remember coming across the website ukulele-tabs.com and how all of its content appears to be banned in the UK. I've had a little look around for more information on this and can't find any real information as to why it has banned UK users to it.

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The site is still accessible from the U.S., but most of the lyrics are x'd out.

Honestly, even with full lyrics, that site doesn't have anything really unique to offer. There are tons of other sites (aiming mostly at guitar) that have lyrics/chord names. All they did different was include uke chord diagrams at the top, and anyone can just print out a chord sheet for reference.

The only way to completely avoid the possibility of being hit for copyright infringement (or the hassle/expense of licensing) is to stick with material in the public domain or original tunes from people who offer them freely.

Enforcement can be really hit or miss. There have been plenty of lively discussions here about cover tunes on youtube.

The other thing is that a lot of these sites that manage to fly under the radar are hosted in countries where copyright enforcement is lax (like Russia or China) and they basically can't be touched.

ukuhippo said:

Uke first, site later. Really.

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Absolutely, I've been down the road you're contemplating on guitar and it's a dead end. Enjoy playing the uke. Don't make it part of your job!