What's your opinion on podcasting?
How many of you have made your music available to podcasters for use in their shows? Check out this site if you are not familiar with it.
From Pod Safe Audio:
"Pod casting is an exciting new medium that enables a person in any location on this planet to broadcast his or her voice onto the net to an audience of potentially hundreds of millions of listeners. Music is an essential part to any pod cast. However, due to the RIAA's restrictive and stifling copyright laws, the process of getting broadcasting permissions for any piece of music in the RIAA's extensive library is extraordinarily daunting. Fortunately, as any individual who has browsed through the millions of unsigned artists on the web knows, the RIAA does not own every talented musician out there. Far from it. Because the RIAA has a strangle hold on most traditional broadcasting and advertising mediums, it can be very difficult for these unsigned artists to develop a fan base and get noticed. All of that is changing. The internet provides an unrestricted conduit for broadcasting, music, opinions, or any other information an individual might want to share.
The pod casting community needs reasonably licensed music for DJs, Mashup artists, intros and background music, and the hordes of talented unsigned artists on the web need a popular outlet for their music. This site hopes to bring these two powerful and creative communities together and offer the world a vision of the future.
Please create an account and upload your songs! Your music will be protected by this version of the Creative Commons license which will make it available for Podcasters and other users as long as they give you credit and don't make money with it."
I think it is a cool idea, even though I know some PRO's are afraid of the Creative Commons license, because they worry that it is irrevocable, and because of the ongoing battle to collect royalties from internet radio.
Should we be afraid that podcasters will use our work without attributing it to us? If we get signed to a major label, will our having made our music available to podcasters hurt us? If podcasters make money from advertisements on their sites, are we entitled to a cut for providing the content?
The podcasters I've dealt with have always been top-shelf true music lovers, who have a genuine passion for what they do, and real desire to help promote the artists. What have your experiences with podcasting been?
Comments
I've had songs on the Podsafe network for a while now. I've had loads of plays to thousands of people that would never have heard of me - in the UK, Holland, Germany, North America, Sweden, Greece... and I've made acquaintance with many of the Podcasters, notably Charlie Steppe of WLSO podcast in S Carolina, and Buster of Buster's charity show in the UK, but many others too. It's a great way to get heard. Links to your site are always given on their homepage and an increase in traffic is guaranteed. I'm happy to give my music away at the moment, just to be heard; I'm not too worried what the future may bring regarding royalties etc. That all seems a long way away.
Good post Freddy. Take care - Al