Song comparisons

Trans-Europe Express by Kraftwerk and Planet Rock by Afrika Bambaataa & the Soulsonic Force: how alike are they?

Sonalize compared the two recordings: 8%, unrelated.

These tracks have no more in common than unrelated songs usually do.

Track B moved up 1 semitones (A Major to D# Minor)

On Sonalize’s other-version check (a cover-song model), this pair is alike in style, as songs of the same genre often are, though not the closeness of another version (distance 1.23; other versions of a song in these comparisons have a median of 0.31, different songs that sound alike 1.27, random pairs 2.95).

Why this pair

This is a pair from a copyright dispute that was decided or settled. Public background: melody + rhythm, replayed (interpolation, not sampled); Settled out of court: Tommy Boy paid Kraftwerk $1 per record. Sonalize's scores are measurements, not a view on any dispute.

How this was measured

Compared from the full recordings; Sonalize's fingerprint lookup confirmed both songs. The same engine runs in the Sonalize app on your own device. A score measures how alike two recordings are; it isn't a finding about copying, legal advice, or a rights clearance.

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