Ultimate Guitar (Ultimate Guitar USA LLC), also known as Ultimate-Guitar.com or simply UG , is an online platform for guitarists and musicians, started on October 9, 1998 by Eugeny Naidenov and based in San Francisco , US. Its website and mobile application provide free and paid user-submitted guitar tablatures and chord sheets , as well as video courses, reviews of music and equipment, interviews with musicians and forums . It is now part of Muse Group .
16-565: Users of Ultimate Guitar are able to view, request, vote and comment on tablatures in the site's forum. Guitar Pro and Power Tab files can be run through programs in order to play the tablature. Members can also submit album, multimedia and gear reviews, as well as guitar lessons and news articles. Approved works are published on the website. The forum is moderated, but there has been no censorship of curse and swear words since September 1, 2015. From 2007 until 2014, Ultimate Guitar allowed its users to create profiles, enabling social networking in
32-471: A completely redesigned version, was released. This version also supports Linux , with 32-bit Ubuntu being the officially supported distribution. On February 6, 2011, the first ever portable release of Guitar Pro (version 6) was made available on the App Store for support with the iPhone , iPod Touch , and iPad running iOS 3.0 or later. An Android version was released on December 17, 2014. In 2011,
48-517: A proprietary multitrack editor of guitar and bass tablature and musical scores , possessing a built-in MIDI -editor, a plotter of chords, a player, a metronome and other tools for musicians. It has versions for Windows and macOS and is written by the French company Arobas Music. There have been six popular public major releases of the software: versions 3–8. Guitar Pro was initially designed as
64-473: A range of new features, most notably support for Apple Silicon processors. The software makes use of multiple instrument tracks which follow standard staff notation , but also shows the notes on tablature notation. It gives the musician visual access to keys ( banjos , drumkits, etc.) for the song to be composed, and allows live previews of the notes to be played at a specified tempo . It allows for certain tracks to be muted and provides dynamic control over
80-470: A song on guitar become an issue of copyright infringment [ sic ]? This website [and tablatures], among other things, helps users teach each other how they play guitar parts for many different songs. This is the way music teachers have behaved since the first music was ever created. The difference here is that the information is shared by way of a new technology: the Internet ..." In April 2008,
96-504: A surge of new users flock to the community. UG argued that it was not subject to the MPA legal actions because its headquarters were in Russia and the site’s practices complied with Russian laws. Since then, UG has signed license agreements with thousands of publishers, including Sony, EMI, Peermusic, Alfred, Hal Leonard, Faber and Music Sales, through which the songwriters receive compensation for
112-452: A tablature editor, but has since evolved into a full-fledged score writer including support for many musical instruments other than guitar. Until it reached version 4, the software was only available for Microsoft Windows . Later, Guitar Pro 5 (released November 2005) undertook a year-long porting effort and Guitar Pro 5 for the macOS was released in July 2006. On April 5, 2010, Guitar Pro 6,
128-573: A version was made to work with the Fretlight guitar called Guitar Pro 6 Fretlight Ready. The tablature notes being played in Guitar Pro 6 Fretlight Ready show up on the Fretlight guitar's LEDs which are encased within the guitar's fretboard to teach you the song. In April 2017, Guitar Pro 7 was officially released with new features and dropped Linux support. Guitar Pro 8 was released in May 2022 with
144-514: A way similar to sites such as MySpace and Facebook . Profiles allowed users to promote their musical projects, photos of gear gear, snippets of original music, and more. The feature was disabled due to lack of use, as well as legal liability due to copyright violations . In late 2004 to early 2005, after Taborama and MXtabs .net began closing due to legal threats from the Music Publishers Association of America , UG saw
160-449: The artist or record label constitute copyright infringement . Former MPA president Lauren Keiser stated that he wanted jail time in addition to fines and the removal of offending websites. In March 2006, the MPA issued a statement in which they explained their position on websites that distribute unauthorized sheet music and tablature. Several points are made in the statement: The MPA's position on tablature has been criticized by
176-399: The display of the tabs. On April 10, 2010, Ultimate Guitar entered an additional licensing agreement with Harry Fox Agency . The agreement included rights for lyrics display, title search and tablature display with download and print capabilities. HFA's over 44,000 represented publishers have the opportunity to opt into the licensing arrangement with UG. Guitar Pro Guitar Pro is
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#1732793378461192-453: The song, following the tablature played in real time. Files composed using Guitar Pro are recorded in the GP, GPX, GP5, GP4 and GP3 format, corresponding to versions 7, 6, 5, 4, and 3 of the software. These file formats lack forward compatibility, and opening them in an older version of Guitar Pro prompts the user to upgrade their software to the respective version. The distribution of these files
208-426: The tabbing community. The community do not believe they are infringing copyright laws because they are only displaying their aural transcriptions of these songs, which are, more often than not, not entirely correct. They feel that the practice of tabbing and sharing songs has existed for decades without any issues. An article on the now-closed guitartabs.cc website said: "At what point does describing how one plays
224-412: The volume, phasing and other aspects of each track. Included in version 4 onwards is a virtual keyboard that allows pianists to add their part to a composition. Guitar Pro outputs sound by means of a library and/or, as of version 5, the " Realistic Sound Engine " (RSE) which uses high quality recorded samples for a more realistic playback. By using its live preview feature musicians may play along with
240-621: Was forced to follow much stricter practices. Music Publishers Association The Music Publishers Association of the United States ( MPA ) is a non-profit music publishing organization based in New York City . Founded in 1895, the MPA is the oldest music trade organization in the United States which addresses issues pertaining to print publishing with an emphasis on copyright education and advocacy. Websites that offer lyrics and guitar tabs without licensing or permission from
256-629: Was widely carried out on the Internet, being produced by fans often by ear, and included songs both of underground and mainstream artists. The main hub for Guitar Pro tabs was (and still is) the Arobas-owned mySongBook. However, the Music Publishers Association (MPA), claiming to represent sheet music companies, raised copyright issues and pressured websites offering the files to cease distribution. This included then-president Lauren Keiser threatening jail time for those involved. Subsequently, distribution became much more dispersed, and mySongBook itself
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