Songcrafters Podcasts

[Flash Harry]

Some of you have responded to a comment I made about the idea of a Songcrafters Podcast that came out of a discussion here: https://songcrafters.org/forum/index.php?topic=29904.0

I have been toying with the idea of a Songcrafters podcast. I think that Internet radio may be a bit ambitious, we have some great music and a podcast could attract some interest.

We don't have advertising on the site (even for members gear for sale and certainly not for material or merch) and maintaining a radio presence will add to the costs of maintaining the site. I'm not comfortable with the commercialisation of what we have.

That said - a monthly podcast of 60 minutes or so showcasing the new music of the month could be possible if others were prepared to contribute.

I hear you...contribute like as far as music or money?  I know there are lots of people who would love the music I hear on here....

Money - no, this site is free join and use for members and I'm keen to keep it that way.

Time is the main problem.

Love the podcast idea...many ideas floating around in my head. Revolving songcrafter hosts? Live showcase/interview? Video companion? I know nothing of podcasts but I do have an old contact that used to book me who now does them full time and teaches seminars. Interesting idea?

Lots to think about here, I feel that we should learn to walk... If you have someone who could offer advice on how to do this that would be great. I like the idea of revolving Songcrafter hosts or more than one host per program, though how that would work is yet to be discovered.

Video companion - no one wants to look at my ugly mug and we need to have a format that all contributors can work with. Up for discussion I'd say.

I think the podcast idea is brilliant, but the obsessive compulsive in me is already worrying about the logistics, like the varying "hotness" of all the recordings here. Someone would have to do a bit of mastering to every track to equalize the levels at least. If we could make it work I would be happy to contribute in some way shape or form. Of course we would not be able to play any covers due to copyright issues which would rule out those folks who only/mainly contribute cover songs. 

There's all of this to sort out, a radio *Master* you know - boost the bass, slam it into a clipper, maybe not as drastic but this is where the time element starts to creep in - the programming (as in the running order and that, rather than the production of software), making sure that we have the contributors permission and a method of recording that permission being given, I'm not sure about the covers thing, we may just need a licence (I bought a licence for a run of demo CDs which were all covers, it cost me 2p I think for 100 CDs.) and then we need our own series of John Peels to host and spin the disks.

So  - open floor, we have some interest, some questions, we need to decide on format, Hook is going to get us the insider knowledge on the market.. lets go.. What? Where? When? Who? How? Why?




 

[Ferryman]

Did a quick bit of reading about cover songs. It will involve money and also deciding under which jurisdiction we would fall. In the UK, it appears a basic Limited Online Music Licence from the PRS for up to 90,000 streams is £73 for 6 months. If we are under US jurisdiction then I think we would need to get a mechanical licence for each cover song through one of the licensing agencies that do this (couldn't find a specific cost but there is talk of $50 to $150 dollars per song).

I'm no expert but based on seeing so many videos being taken down on YouTube and a bit of Googling, we should steer well clear of cover songs unless we have someone on SC that understands the legal aspects of all of this and knows for sure how to do the licensing.

I'll happily put myself up as one of the John Peels if we do move this forward........   

[IanR]

Doing a Podcast is a great idea but you are right to point out the logistics and the costs. It would require a team to make it happen.

The risk is that there is a huge amount of competition in the podcast market, especially now in lockdown where every person is doing a podcast. I think that we would be the only ones listening to it and we already have the jukebox to enable a stream of Songcrafter songs.

I would prefer to take the step of using technology to arrange a fortnightly Zoom or Skype meeting instead. This would require less overhead and production and would give us the opportunity to meet each other, discuss our music, share experience and arrange collaborations.

I would suggest that we have an agreed agenda with the subjects to be discussed and perhaps even have some of us to speak to questions that have been posted before on the site. But not be too rigid in where we go.

We could take the additional step of recording these and posting them back on Songcrafters for others to listen top later.

So, this idea sort of turns into an interactive live Zoom based "quasi-podcast", that can be accessed as a recording by others later on.

Thoughts??

Ian