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The Future of Music from the Cube Posts
Well, whaddya know. My long search for an embeddable music player that will allow you to create playlists and will also be accepted by LJ has finally paid off.
Truth to tell, I'm kind of relieved about this. There have been several emails over the past two months which have made me increasingly wary about offering MP3s for download (the most recent was a most interesting email regarding my post on Marshall Crenshaw — and no, it was not anyone associated with the artist). It appears my Music from the Cube posts have popped up on too many people's radar outside of LJ-land and off my FList.
While no one has threatened legal action (yet), I suspect the day is coming when someone will.
As a result, I have to start considering a limited set of options (in order of preference):
Using Imeem to embed a playlist helps me avoid making any of those choices. Number one: There's no chance in hell I'll get dinged for violating any laws since it's streaming media that I (in theory) own. Two: I'll be able to (in theory) provide the entire CD for your listening pleasure.
Now, I'll still offer MP3s for download for mixes and soundtracks, so there's no plans to change that at all. I think if worst comes to worst, I can argue fair use in that case (Can someone familiar with the DMCA let me know if that's the case?). However, if I've got all these Music from the Cube posts with live downloads on top of a various mixes that expire after 30 to 60 days...ummmm...that's gonna be hard to explain away.
Anyway, I'm throwing up a test embedded paylist. Let me know what y'all think:
Truth to tell, I'm kind of relieved about this. There have been several emails over the past two months which have made me increasingly wary about offering MP3s for download (the most recent was a most interesting email regarding my post on Marshall Crenshaw — and no, it was not anyone associated with the artist). It appears my Music from the Cube posts have popped up on too many people's radar outside of LJ-land and off my FList.
While no one has threatened legal action (yet), I suspect the day is coming when someone will.
As a result, I have to start considering a limited set of options (in order of preference):
- Start friends-locking my Music from the Cube posts
- Create a friends-only community where I Am Queen providing all the posts and the downloads
- Stop the Music from the Cube posts altogether
Using Imeem to embed a playlist helps me avoid making any of those choices. Number one: There's no chance in hell I'll get dinged for violating any laws since it's streaming media that I (in theory) own. Two: I'll be able to (in theory) provide the entire CD for your listening pleasure.
Now, I'll still offer MP3s for download for mixes and soundtracks, so there's no plans to change that at all. I think if worst comes to worst, I can argue fair use in that case (Can someone familiar with the DMCA let me know if that's the case?). However, if I've got all these Music from the Cube posts with live downloads on top of a various mixes that expire after 30 to 60 days...ummmm...that's gonna be hard to explain away.
Anyway, I'm throwing up a test embedded paylist. Let me know what y'all think:
no subject
- The "fair use" exception does not allow you to provide copies to others, even if you don't profit from it. Lending someone your CD is fine, but giving someone a copy of your tracks is not. So, your "mixes and soundtracks" plan would still be illegal distribution. But, honestly, that kind of distribution is kind of like speeding: a few folks get caught, but the number of people who do it is far too large to catch even a significant percentage of them.
- Be careful of broadcasting. There is a decision recently made regarding royalties, retroactive to 1/1/06, which absolutely hammers on-line broadcasting. If the decision holds, the custom-made broadcast channels, like the one you are setting up through imeem, would be a thing of the past. Check out http://www.savethestreams.org/ for more info.
- One option would be to provide 30 second samples of the tracks, rather than the whole thing. That's already been established as fair use for sites that sell or review music, because it's enough to give people an idea of what the track sounds like, but not something that would substitute for the possible purchase of the track. Of course, that's probably way more trouble than it's worth.
My purely personal, non-binding and in-no-way professional opinion? If the goal is to share music among your on-line friends, I would keep offering complete tracks for download and just F-lock the posts. That seems like the easiest solution. If the goal is to provide reviews for the general public, I would go with your streaming solution for now, with a backup plan in case those sites are shut down due to royalty concerns.