Posted on 12/24/2025 10:34:00 PM PST by Windcatcher
I'm 75% of the way through writing my fantasy trilogy and I heard a piece of music on Youtube that to me screamed for lyrics. If I write my own lyrics based on it and have my characters listen to someone singing it, can I legally use it in my book or is it problematic from a copyright standpoint? Do I have to get permission from the music composer? Am I better off just dropping the idea?
Hmm. Never mind. I asked Grok and it says they would be a derivative work, so I’ll just take them out. It’s a shame.
Do not mention what music you are basing it on and it is fine.
Most music in books does not have the tune included leaving the reader to come up with their own.
I asked an AI robot about you question;
1. Music is copyright-protected even if it has no lyrics.
A musical composition (melody, harmony, structure) is protected separately from any lyrics. If you write lyrics that are clearly meant to accompany someone else’s melody, that is legally considered creating a derivative work. Only the copyright holder—usually the composer or publisher—can authorize that.
2. Even if you’re not reproducing the music on the page, using your lyrics “based on it” can still infringe.
If the lyrics are written to fit the copyrighted tune, that’s still considered derived from the original work. Courts evaluate whether it is “substantially similar,” and using the melody (even implied/unstated) falls under that.
3. You don’t need permission if:
• The piece is in the public domain (typically published before 1929 as of 2025, though check exact release date and country).
• Your new lyrics do not track, refer to, or rely on the original melody or structure—i.e., they become fully original.
4. You do need permission if:
• The music is copyrighted (which almost all YouTube music is).
• Your lyrics are meant to work with the original tune.
5. What about mentioning that your characters hear a song?
You can mention a real song by name within a novel—this is fine.
What you cannot do is reproduce its lyrics or create a derivative version of it without permission.
6. The safe options:
• Write entirely original lyrics to an original, invented tune. This avoids all issues.
• License the music, but for a novel the licensing cost is usually not worth it.
• Use public-domain music if you truly want the lyrics to fit an existing melody.
Bottom line
If the music isn’t in the public domain, and your lyrics are meant to match that melody, you need permission. If you can’t get it easily, it’s better to drop the idea or invent your own tune.
Yeah, I removed them just now and wrote a paragraph about the people singing and my characters’ reaction instead.
You can do what Tolkien did, use your own lyrics and leave it to the imagination of the reader what the music is.
I’m not going to bother. The point of the lyrics in the first place was to show how the men in a stronghold had kept memory alive of an ancient battle when everyone else on the continent had forgotten. I don’t need lyrics to get that point across.
Hey you can use AI to come up with songs and lyrics as well. The number one country song in the U.S. today was vomited by AI. don’t knock it i guess
Does the music do at least one of these on the page:
Change a character’s internal state
Change the direction of the scene
Change the reader’s understanding
If none of those happen, leave the music out.
Essentially it appears you are asking for legal advice. There are people who went to school just so they could make good money answering such questions. Copyright and other intellectual property laws can be complicated.
But one thing is not overly complicated and information regarding it is easy to find. In simplest terms, You can not use the music of another artist without their permission. Whether it falls under “fair use”in the scenario you describe is doubtful.
“Do not mention what music you are basing it on and it is fine.”
No it is not fine.
Amy Lee added lyrics to Lacrymosa, but that’s a rather old song. As long as the tune isn’t written or mentioned, lyrics on their own should be fine as long as they’re yours.
Lyrics are a poem set to a tune, so yes, you own your own lyrics. In writing alone, it’s just a poem.
In the car the other day we were listening to the piano instrumental “Last Date” by Floyd Cramer. We had heard lyrics in the past but couldn’t recall them so I Googled the lyrics.
There must be five different sets of lyrics to the song and I wondered then if everyone singing them had to get permission from Cramer. (I know he played on the rendition by Skeeter Davis, but there were others.)
No big deal, but we were curious.
I constantly come up with new lyrics to popular (more or less - it varies) songs, but, unless I was to try to go the “Weird Al” route, I can’t do anything with them besides amuse myself. (Most are funny or satire.)
On another note (slight pun), I still have not figured out how most YouTube music vids stay up, but some get removed. Maybe it’s whether or not you try to monetize them?
“I constantly come up with new lyrics to popular (more or less - it varies) songs”
My cousin and I used to do that with hymns when we were bored in church.
I’m thinking common sense would scream no. You don’t own the music regardless just by adding lyrics. People do parodies all the time and then there’s those who sing along to songs and read the lyrics later and say “that’s what they were saying?”
I like the AI song. They are now doing AI songs based on Bible verses.
Instead I made the lyrics generic and gave them to the music composer. Maybe it will inspire him! As for me, the point of the song wasn’t the song per se but that, alone on the continent, the people singing it had kept alive the 2,400-year-old memory of the battle that it was about. I replaced it with a paragraph mentioning the battle and the emotional reaction my character had upon realizing that its memory had been kept alive. Anyway, you can fast-forward to about 13:00 to hear the music and read my lyrics in the comments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9pHY1nszsA&t=1031s
Um, no. Not yet.
Consult with an attorney. 1 hour. Ask what it would cost to defend against allegations and balance that against the benefits of free advertising.
Such a story could easily go viral, depending on a number of factors, including both the topic & quality of your book, to state nothing of whose music.
Frankly, it could be designed as a subplot which merges your work with the real world.
IMHO
A song without music is just a poem and that would be all hers.
What music someone at DragonCon set it to for filking purposes is all up to them.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.