Music Publishers Crack Down on Guitar Tabs

The Online Guitar Archive, or (OLGA), was a guitar tablature repository where guitarists who had picked their way through a song would post charts in order to teach each other how to play the guitar parts from popular recordings. The site has become near and dear to a generation of guitarists who grew up learning to play.

The site's operators received a "cease and desist" letter from the Music Publishers Association and National Music Publishers Association [last August, although the tabs are still down] demanding that the tabs be taken down, which they complied with. Instead, visitors to the site can read the entire takedown notice (page 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6
) and follow links to usenet groups that specialize in guitar tablature.

A friend of mine summed up what a lot of people must be feeling right now with "I grew up on OLGA. I'm bummed."

Other users of the site are equally dejected:

"OLGA served as a cyber-place for thousands of guitarists to exchangechord arrangements for songs. I’ve played guitar for many years, andthis is exactly what guitarists do in person. It is the best way tolearn tunes—we exchange scribbled out chord progressions.

"But we won’t do this any more on OLGA. You see, the owners of thesite received a 'take down letter,' and that was the end of OLGA...

"...In the meantime, I’ll be figuring out the chords to tunes more slowly, on my own."

You'd think music publishers would want to encourage the nextgeneration of guitarists by allowing them to learn from each other andthose who came before, but, sadly, that does not appear to be the case.

(via dangerous intersection; thanks, John)
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