With A Voice Like This

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131 – Sell, Save and is this Oasis?

Recorded 06 April 2010

On this episode of With A Voice Like This I talk about:

At Any Rate

  • The WordPress eStore plugin a plugin that allows you to sell digital downloads of your music safely and securely. I even show you what I did in a fairly short time with my own Music, etc. page using the plugin.

News You Can Use

  • A quick update on the Chicago Event Promoters Ordinance and what Alderman Eugene Schulter had to say about it as reported by Center Square Journal.

 

Portrait of Alderman Eugene Schulter from 50 Alderman/50 artists (photo credit to "TLC, the most awesome chick in Chicago"
Portrait of Alderman Eugene Schulter (photo credit to "TLC, the most awesome chick in Chicago")

One More Thing

  • I got some snail mail from Oasis Disc Manufacturing and I don’t know anything about them. Anyone care to give me an opinion?

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109 – Chicago Resources, eJAMMING AUDiiO and Indie is Dead?

Recorded 11 August 2009

In this episode of With A Voice Like This I have an exclusive release and discuss:

News You Can Use
This is my exclusive for this episode, something no one else has but me and I’m sharing it with you!

  • The Chicago Music Commission has quietly launched a new Resources page on their website. It includes links to their blog, the Musicians at Work Forum, ChicagoFestivals.net and the newest offering, a searchable database of Chicago area music businesses [Edit:  site no longer exists]. Something no one else has in the city of Chicago and I’m the first to bring it to you.

At Any Rate

  • There was a bit of an assignment with this one. eJAMMING AUDiiO is a website that offers a real time collaborative network for musicians who want to jam and record with musicians in other locations with near zero latency over the internet. I take a look at the site and read a little feedback from the Podcast Gallery on this one.
  • I discuss a post by Richard Eoin Nash titled The End of Indie. Since I had only just read it, I’m open to hearing your take on the post and talked about how my thoughts differed from those of Mr. Nash and where they were the same. Feel free to give me your thoughts on the issue.

You can give me your feedback  in any number of ways. You can write me at [email protected] and even attach an audio file (.wav or .mp3 format preferably), or call the Comments from the Podcast Gallery voicemail line at 630.492.0487 and leave your thoughts (standard calling rates apply).  Then listen to hear your thoughts on the next show.

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096 – Performance Rights Act Part 1

Recorded 31 March 2009

This episode is the first half of an interview with Alice Peacock, singer-songwriter and past president of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) and Bruce Iglauer, Founder and President of Alligator Records, the world’s largest independent Blues Record Label.

Some of what we discuss in this episode of With A Voice Like This:

  • What HR-848 is all about
  • What the breakdown of royalty payouts
  • How the Payouts are handled (Master owner, performer, etc.)
  • Perspectives of Indie Labels and performers
  • Shrinking business of recording music
  • Does HR-848 go far enough?
  • History of Performance Rights Organizations
  • Reply to the ‘radio free promotion for the music and musicians’ stance

If you’d like to learn more about Alice Peacock and her music, you can go to AlicePeacock.com and to learn more about Alligator records, you can go to AlligatorRecords.com.

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076 – An Anniversary, a CD and a Contest

Recorded 6 November 2008

This is the first anniversary show of With A Voice Like This, it’s been a full year since I started this show and this show comes full circle. Back to where I started with the Christmas EP With A Voice Like This Christmas.The topics on this episode include:

  • What’s happening with the CD Baby listing of my CD both physical and digital download
  • The pricing structure for the CD
  • CD Baby’s e-mail about how to improve your CD sales for the holidays
  • Update of the digital distribution of my Christmas CD
  • All about the Contest running through December 15
  • A nod to the Podsafe Music Network for making my music available
  • A brief look at what’s up for this show going forward

I play We Three Kings from my CD

And the return of the I have list as well.
I Have:

  • A Holiday CD available on CD Baby in both CD and Digital Download
  • The CD sent out to 10 digital retailers
  • My first Sale through CD Baby
  • Good ideas for the future shows

Links from the show

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074 – CD Baby is your digital friend

Recorded 23 October 2008

Well, it’s that time to be thinking about getting the Christmas CD out there for public consumption and I needed a new home for it. imagine my surprise when looking at CD Baby again and finding that they’re really into digital distribution. Maybe I didn’t look closely enough or maybe they’re doing more than they used to, but it’s there and the full range of offerings is the topic of this episode.

Topics included:

  • Why I went with CD Baby instead of a pre-order through my own site
  • What CD Baby offers with Digital Distribution and its payout
  • The comparison of selling the physical CD
  • The list of the digital partners with CD Baby
  • Turnaround for the digital partners
  • Bar codes and ISRC codes for digital distribution
  • Great customer service turnaround

Comments From The Podcast Gallery
instead of comments, this is an assignment for you, the Podcast Gallery. Since the digital partners don’t notify CD Baby when they have released my music, I’m asking the Podcast Gallery to let me know if they see my music on a download site. Write me here or call me on the Podcast Gallery voicemail line at 630.492.0487.

And while you’re checking out iTunes for my music, go ahead and subscribe to the show and leave a review.

Links
CD Baby.com – the website to sell your indie music CD the buyer’s side
CD Baby.net – Musician member site

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068 – Interview with Ariel Hyatt – Part 2

Recorded 4 September 2008

This Episode is the conclusion of the interview with Ariel Hyatt, President of Ariel Publicity & Cyber PR and Author of the book, Music Success in Nine Weeks. Topics discussed in the conclusion were:

  • Info Marketing
  • The paradigm shift in the Music Industry
  • Experiential Souvenirs
  • It takes time
  • How to get Music Success in Nine Weeks
  • Ariel Publicity & Cyber PR and how they work with New and Social Media
  • Connecting with your fan base

Comments from the Podcast Gallery
Podcasters Chef Mark Tafoya, founder of the Culinary Media Network and host of ReMARKable Palate and Andrea of Geek is Chic contributed comments in this show.

Links from this show

Music from this show
The music in the show is Should I Love Him or Walk Away by Wendy St. Kitts [Update: link removed, web address no longer valid]. In addition to her website, you can find her on MySpace and CD Baby. Thank you to Ariel Publicity & Cyber PR for the music.

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067 – Interview with Ariel Hyatt – Part 1

recorded 4 September 2008

This episode of With A Voice Like This is the first part of my interview with Ariel Hyatt, President of Ariel Publicity & Cyber PR and author of the new book Music Success in Nine Weeks.

The topics discussed in this first half of the interview include:

  • Ariel’s background and what lead to the writing of the book
  • The purpose of the book and how to use it
  • Giving a context to who you are as a musician
  • Networking – the art of influence
  • Newsletters and New Media
  • Connecting with your audience
  • ‘What’s in it for me?’
  • USP – Unique Selling Point

Links from this show

The conclusion of this interview will be Episode 068 of the show.

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062 – A Tool and A Launch

recorded 24 July 2008

At Any Rate (00:00:32)
This episode takes a look at a tool I had seen trumpeted as a “copyright infringement assessment tool” PDTool, why I think it’s not a good tool and some much better alternatives for dealing with copyright infringement assessment as a new media person, Public Domain Music and the Podcasting Legal Guide.

4-AM (00:11:37)
This episode was also the official launch announcement of for http://4-AM.net [edit: neither the site nor group exists any longer], the official website for our a cappella group. A quick trip through the site, which took until the last minute before the show to get loaded (Ah the joys of downloading program patches when an app fails and conversion times) and it was ready to go by show time. Take a look, see what you think and let us know. Yay for it being launched!

Comments From the Podcast Gallery
Fellow Podcaster Kim Fenolio of the Girls Night In Podcast shared comments in the show among the rest of the Podcast Gallery.

If you’d like to share your Comments from the Podcast Gallery, you can leave a voicemail at 630.492.0487 or send an e-mail to [email protected] and it will be shared on the show. Your viewpoint is always appreciated.

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Who Do You Want To Pay For Your Music?

Well, it’s happened. Spain has announced that beginning July 1, it’s instituting a special anti-piracy tax called the Digital Canon [UPDATE: Article referenceing this no longer exists online] , according to an article on Billboard.biz. It puts a tax on gadgets that can copy, record or store sounds and images. Yes, I said store too.

Sounds like a new spin on the old sin tax. Except, with the standard things a sin tax applies to, you actually have to participate in the sin, e.g. gambling, smoking or consuming alcohol. This is more like saying “We’re instituting an anti-stabbing tax on all kitchenware and cutlery” (don’t worry, I’m sure spoons would have the smallest tax in that scenario). The tool has the capability, so you are taxed whether or not you use, or even intend to use it for that illicit purpose.

Now based on the article, all the monies collected are given to Artists’ Rights Organizations for distribution to the creators of the art as compensation for money lost from pirated works. There is no provision for how the money is to be distributed, it’s just given to the Rights Organizations. How would you decide to distribute the money? You’re getting a flat fee based on tools without any tracking what works are being pirated or used or anything. Yeah, let’s just leave it up to the old way of doing things, I’m sure that’s fair. It’s sounds like most of Spain feels that way…Or not.

But don’t worry about it,  that’s Spain and not here. That could never happen here. An under informed government is never forced to take carte blanche on an almost out of control situation based on special interest groups’ input. No, not here.

So, what do you think? Does any of this matter? If we’re going to be charged on the Internet, and all indicators point that way, is this how it should work? Is it important that the creators of the art be protected and compensated for their works?

Who do you want to pay for your music?

Update: It’s been brought to my attention that Canada has an anti-piracy tax on recordable media (e.g. CDs DVDs) and did have a separate tariff on mp3 players (e.g. iPods) that has since been revoked/repealed. I haven’t found creditable sources for this info, are there any Canadians who could shed some extra light on this?

058 – My View – Music And The Internet Part 2: The Implementation

This episode of With A Voice Like This is the conclusion of how I’d like to see things work in regard to music and the Internet and distribution of both responsibilities and money.

  • Some quick clarifications from statements made last show.
  • A brief recap of Episode 057‘s (Part 1) major points

Music and the Internet is a Virtual Venue

  • Performers perform (Streaming)
  • Consumers pay (e.g. cover charge, all inclusive charge)
  • Consumers can also buy recordings and other merchandise above entrance fees
  • Venues (ISPs,  applications) are responsible for reporting and payment

Database

  • With new code, all streams, downloads, etc. are tracked and put in a database (Who holds the DB TBD)
  • No more sampling needed, just a direct pull of tracks from the database

Collecting

  • Performance Rights Organizations (PRO) could still collect, but pay based on actual numbers, not samplings
  • No PRO could collect for non-members and keep money if the performers either don’t join, can’t be found or don’t claim their money
  • Artists, Authors, Lyricists and Publishers responsibility is to secure a code so they are credited and paid for their works or not paid by their choice.
  • Any music without the code is flagged in database and action taken (example of software recognition at EveryZing.com [EDIT: 12-28-12 – EveryZing.com is no longer a valid website])

Comments From The Podcast Gallery

The Down side

This discussion is an overly simplistic layout of a very complex idea. Currently the Orphan Works Act almost passed in Congress and it seems very similar to what I’ve outlined here. You can hear it discussed at great length on Webcomics Weekly #38 from a visual artist’s point of view and its major weaknesses. I feel I’ve taken some of the things into account that were ignored in the Orphan Works Act and although not exactly the same, the pitfalls could be very similar.

On A Lighter Note

Here are examples of some voiceover work I had just recently done.

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057 – My View – Music And The Internet Part 1: The Mechanism

A friend asked me in the aftershow of the Is This The Rights Thing To Do? series of episodes (047, 048 & 049) How I would like to see things happen with music rights and the Internet, so here it is, or at least Part 1.

At Any Rate
This week Warner records pulled out of its deal with Last.fm because the money wasn’t good enough. See Gerd Leonhard’s take on the situation.

Music on the Internet is Virtual Inventory

  • The three types of inventory
  • Tracking inventory

Tracking Mechanism (code) for the inventory

  • The 4 (or more) pieces of information the code holds
  • Where the code resides
  • Existing tracking capabilities
  • No more sampling in place of actual tracking
  • Retrofit back to songs with copyright of 1923 or later
  • Must be in place by 2018

Comments From the Podcast Gallery

Next Week
Next week will be the second part of this discussion Music and the Internet Part 2: The Implementation, where I talk about the roles of the Artist, ISPs, PROs and more in implementing this mechanism. Join me Live at 7:00pm CT on Thursday, June 19 or call in your Comments From the Podcast Gallery to 630.492.0487.

Listener’s Choice

This episode’s choice comes from Kim Fenolio, and it’s Summertime by Brother Love.

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051 – A ca What?

This episode of With A Voice Like This was prompted by the arranging I am doing for 4-AM and an announcement of a new contest for original a cappella pieces. There is a lot of confusion about a cappella music and what it is and so I thought I’d spend an episode exploring some good places to find out more information about it and give you access to a couple of podcasts featuring a cappella music. So here’s the list of links from this episode:

First, the A cappella originals songwriting contest submissions accepted through June 15 at:
[NOTE: page no longer exists]

The sponsors of the competition:

Vocality – A Colorado Vocal Ensemble

Virtual Voices [Edit: while the site still exists, it is not the same services as discussed in this podcast] – A company that helps sell your products on the Internet

Vocomotion – Recording studio and Labs producing products for A cappella singers

A cappella Organization

CASA.org – The Contemporary A cappella Society

A cappella Podcasts

A cappella Originals from casa.org

The Acapodcast with Chad Bergeron

And Finally, Listener’s Choice

This episode’s choice came from Kim Fenolio of Kimfenolio.com and the Girls Night In Podcast.

Kim sent in an introduction for Not Responsible by Podsafe Music Network artist Laura Clapp

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049 – Is This the Rights Thing to Do? Part 3

Originally this episode was to feature an ASCAP representative, but the timing didn’t quite work out for this show. so the discussion turned to an overview what issues were facing on the Internet with music and content in general.

Topics discussed are:

  • ASCAP’s take with the Songwriter’s Bill of Rights using rickrolling as an example.
  • Music leads the Internet charge in content and how it delivery is being monetized and even moving toward regulation
  • Why does the same free content on the web suddenly become worth charging for and being paid for in a different format?
  • Content on the web isn’t really free? Someone’s making money on content.
  • Protection versus Statements of rights by a subset of people
  • The different factions involved in the music on the Internet trying to stake their claims
  • Limited past delivery systems versus the Internet’s near limitless capabilities
  • Protections versus Control
  • Net Neutrality
  • Selling your Privacy for convenience
  • The double-edged sword of easy access
  • Comments from the Podcast Gallery
  • What’s Freedom without responsibility?

Links discussed in the show:

ASCAP’s Songwriter’s Bill of Rights

My previous post The Perception of Value

Podcasting Legal Guide wiki and in PDF format

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048 – Is This the Rights Thing to Do? Part 2

This episode of With A Voice Like This is the conclusion of the discussion with Independent Singer/Songwriter Samantha Murphy of SMtvMusic.com stemming from the April 10 release of ASCAP‘s Songwriter’s Bill of Rights.

topics in this episode include:

  • Government’s role in resolution of these issues
  • Sound Exchange, its background and methodology
  • What Samantha is doing to put action behind her viewpoints
  • The role of Education in music and the Digital Age – meisa.org
  • Questions and Comments from the Podcast Gallery
  • Creative Commons

Links discussed in this episode:

Samantha Murphy at SMtvMusic.com

Samantha’s e-mail is [email protected]

Performance Rights Organizations: ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, Sound Exchange

Samantha Murphy’s article written for a Princeton Symposium

Samantha also works with [NOTE: Site no longer exists]

SaveNetRadio.org  [NOTE: Site no longer exists]

Fading Ways Online [NOTE: Site no longer exists]

MEISA.org – Music & Entertainment Industry Student Association

Lawrence Lessig article – Commons Misunderstandings: ASCAP on Creative Commons

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047 – Is This the Rights Thing to Do? Part 1

Thursday, April 10, just in time for their big ‘I Create Music’ ASCAP Expo in LA, ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) released their Songwriter’s Bill of Rights. In this episode and the next, recorded live on April 10, I discuss this with Samantha Murphy, an independent singer/songwriter and outspoken proponent of change for how music is delivered, monetized and protected in the digital age.

Topics covered in this episode include:

  • Samantha’s unique experience as a professional performing musician since the age of six
  • The Songwriter Bill of Rights read
  • Transparency of PROs and their methods
  • How this affects Net Neutrality
  • The effect of the Internet on music delivery
  • One PRO’s line in the sand
  • Who do we turn to, the Government?

The conclusion of this discussion with Samantha Murphy can be heard in episode 048.

[Additional Note: At the beginning of this episode, I made the statement that ASCAP’s Bill of Rights was to benefit performers. As Samantha pointed out, while you can have a performer account with ASCAP, it is a completely separate entity of its own and this Bill of Rights deals only with Songwriters.

Edit: A further clarification from Samantha is that the two types of accounts are Writer and Publisher, not Performer .]

Links from this episode:

Samantha Murphy at SMtvMusic.com [EDIT: Removed link as site no longer exists]

Performance Rights Organizations:ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, Sound Exchange

ASCAP Songwriter’s Bill of Rights [Edit: Link redirects to  the ASCAP Advocacy/Legislation page]

Portfolio.com article about the ASCAP Bill of Rights by Sam Gustin

Portfolio.com article Paying the Piper by Sam Gustin

Samantha Murphy’s article written for a Princeton Symposium

Samantha also works with DigitalFreedom.org/

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