Indie Bible - zankMusic.com

Hmmm …what if I change my mind?
This is an extremely important point for you to consider. Creative
Commons licenses are n o n - re v o c a b l e. This means that you cannot stop
someone, who has obtained your work under a Creative Commons
license, from using the work according to that license. You can stop
o ffering your work under a Creative Commons license at any time you
wish; but this will not affect the rights with any copies of your work
already in circulation under a Creative Commons license. So you need to
think carefully when choosing a Creative Commons license to make sure
that you are happy for people to be using your work consistent with the
terms of the license, even if you later stop distributing your work.
Before you do anything, make sure you have the rights!
Before applying a Creative Commons license to a work, you need to
make sure you have the authority to do so. This means that you need to
make sure that the person who owns the copyright in the work is happy
to have the work made available under a Creative Commons license.
Where do podcasters find podsafe music? (from Dave’s
Imaginary Sound Space soundblog.spaces.live.com)
Discovering new music and the ability to use it fairly without fear of
copyright infringement is a key issue for podcasters and listeners alike.
Artists, composers, producers and consumers can all benefit from clear,
fair and flexible copyright licenses that embrace new technologies.
‘ P o d s a f e ’ means non-RIAA audio and video that can be used legally in
podcast productions and freely distributed online for downloading.
Podsafe music can be found in many locations on the web including:
artists websites, MP3 blogs, open source music communities, podcast
directories, netlabels, P2P networks and BitTorrent hosts. A quick search
for “podsafe” in a podcast directory like PodcastAlley.com reveals a rich
and diverse array of productions featuring podsafe music. Unfortunately
it becomes extremely time consuming for podcasters to source available
music and listen to it. Recommendations by listeners and fans play an
important part in the podcast production process.
The definitive list of podcasting safe music sites can be found here:
w w w. s o u n d b l o g . s p a c e s . l i v e . c o m / B l o g / c n s ! 1 p X O S 7 l 9 3 k 8 m q e Q 7 F l E E m O
SQ!907.entry
I t ’s always about the music
For an artist just entering into the podcast/MP3 blog universe, the amount
of information to take in can be overwhelming. It’s not unlike a lifelong
typist being plopped in front of a computer and asked to create a
spreadsheet with colored charts.
As you watch the internet continue to explode with new
technologies, it may feel like life has passed you by and left you lying in
the dust. However, the truth is we’re all still tightly bundled together. No
one is e v e r left behind. The opportunity to move towards the cutting edge
is available to anyone (my father-in-law has just learned how to use a
computer at the age of 81). Don’t let fear (and the excuses it can conjure
up) lessen your attempts to succeed.
R e m e m b e r, it has always been, and always will be about the music -
that unique expression that y o u have to offer to the world. Podcasts,
podsafe music, MP3 blogs, Creative Commons licenses and all that other
b o u n c e - o ff-the-head stuff is simply a collection of new and useful tools
to help you get your music heard by more people.
Final thoughts
For the newbie, my suggestion would be to take it slow. Go to the
Creative Commons site www. c r e a t i v e c o m m o n s . o rg and poke around. It’s
a very user-friendly website. They understand that musicians are not
lawyers.
Once you’re done that, then start checking out the various podcast
and blog websites. You’ll soon discover that bloggers and podcasters are
simply human beings with a passion for music - a collection of music
lovers that are ready and willing to help you get your songs heard by a
new stream of potential fans.
♦
KNOWING THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
GOOD PR AND BAD PR
by John Foxworthy, Garage Radio Magazine
© 2008 All Rights Reserved. Used By Permission
Publicity and networking are the two most important parts of any
successful music project. Unless you lack aspirations to venture beyond
your local scene, your career risks stagnation without them. This is why it’s
important to get a handle on how to conduct yourself when interacting with
radio, publications, labels or any other facet of the music business …
otherwise you chance snuffing your credibility before you even get out of
the gate.
Whether you work PR for your own act or someone else’s, your role
seems simple … create and maintain public interest; however, even the
most marketable project and the most interesting press releases are hardly
enough to achieve these goals. As with anything you do, there are
unwritten laws of etiquette you must follow to function effectively as a
publicist.
As the Chief Editor of a busy e-zine and Host of a widely listened
radio show, bands, labels, publicists and other publications contact me
regarding press and airplay on a regular basis. This correspondence is truly
the backbone of what I do … it keeps me in the know on many levels and
provides me the opportunity to make new contacts. On the other hand, it
also aggravates and frustrates me more often than not. I’m learning that
better than half of the folks taking responsibility for public relations are
most likely shooting themselves in the foot.
Do your research
This is a point I just can’t stress enough. In fact, I could write this entire
article on just that subject. It requires a lot of work, but the rewards will
come back ten-fold. There are so many source guides and directories out
there that it’s virtually impossible to keep up and these are great tools, but
used unwisely they can actually work against you. Here’s a scenario based
on my own experience:
I host a Rock/Punk/Metal radio show that’s clearly described as such
on my web site, as well as every directory in which it appears. Yet, almost
daily I get press releases and requests for airplay from artists who play
anything but Rock, Punk or Metal. This probably wouldn’t annoy me as
much if I didn’t also get the same, exact emails to my e-zine inbox.
You may ask me, “What’s the problem? Why not just delete the
email?”
T h a t ’s a simple solution and often times I do, but this is the symptom
of a behavior that’s sure to thwart the efforts of the sender. Think about it
… if they’re doing it to me, they’re doing it to their other contacts as well.
It tells me that this is someone who uses the gum-at-the-wall approach and
may not be worth looking into … plus they tend to go onto my SPAM list.
I also stay in regular contact with my other colleagues in the biz, so they
may even end up on a “blacklist” and could even get stonewalled presswise
in the future.
The solution? Take some time to find out to whom your email is
going by doing a simple search to check out their site, show, magazine or
w h a t e v e r. It’s even acceptable to send a preliminary email to introduce
yourself and get a better idea of what they’re looking for (or if they even
want your correspondence) before you fire off that request. This is also a
great way to make first contact, which makes for an appropriate segue into
our next topic.
First contact
I leave my email address publicly accessible to make it easy for people to
contact me. This also contributes to the amount of SPAM I receive … a
necessary evil in my position … so I spend an average of eleven hours a
week sifting through my new messages in an attempt to separate the SPA M
from the news. Why? First of all, most people don’t know how to
e ffectively title the subject of their message. Secondly, it’s first contact … I
may not know who sent the email because I’ve never corresponded with
t h e m .
In the last eight years I’ve trained myself to tell the difference between
South African bank scams and artists trying to get exposure for new
releases. This doesn’t mean I’ve trained myself to stop deleting messages