Spotify has revealed in a new European patent filing that the streaming platform is preparing a tool to alert songwriters of copyright infringement.
According to the document obtained by Music Business Worldwide, the company is looking to obtain a “Plagiarism Risk Detector and Interface” technology. This system will help to test lead sheets, a type of music score, and detect plagiarism.
The new tool will have lead sheets fed through its detector. From there, it will immediately compare the composition to other songs in the database. The results will share the level of plagiarism detected within a musical work.
The plagiarism detector will also notify a songwriter when their song is “completely new” or entirely original.
Spotify predicts that the tool will take place in near-real-time, meaning detection results will not take long to process. This will help artists and songwriters revise or edit their work and prevent infringement in any potentially published tracks.