Jim’s Random Notes

So let’s say that you’re a musician on your way by airplane from Point A to Point C with a stop at Point B. Trusting the airlines to handle your luggage, you check your guitar. While sitting in the airplane at Point B you see the luggage handlers treating your guitar roughly, and when you arrive at Point C you learn that the guitar has been broken.

So you spend a year trying to convince the airline that they should make things right.  When your efforts fail and the airline says that their final response is “No,” you decide on a different plan of action.

Dave Carroll posted that video on July 6.  CNN reported on it two days later.  Since then, it’s been reported on several other major news networks and countless blogs.  Today, five days after the video was posted, it has over 2 million views.

As a coworker said, “never piss off a musician.”  I’m betting United Airlines wishes they had handled this differently.

One of the benefits of what I’m doing for work (we’re building a media search and discovery site) is that I find all kinds of different music all over the Web.  Sure, there’s lots of commercial music out there that shouldn’t be, but it’s a relatively small part of what’s there.  The crawler’s incredible breadth has allowed me to find lots of new (to me) music from many independent artists who post samples or full songs on their Web sites.  They know that their biggest problem is getting people to discover them.  Piracy is a problem only for hugely popular artists.  Small artists’ biggest enemy is obscurity.

A good example is guitarist and composer Randy Ellefson, whose music I discovered on an instrumental podcast.  I’ve become quite a fan of his music (I like early ’70s rock,  which his music resembles), and I’m impressed by the way he’s making his music available.  He allows podcasters (with permission) to feature his songs in their podcasts, and he also makes some of his songs available on his Web site.  For example, he’s released two albums.  On his main page, you can listen to four full songs from each album.  There are also links where you can download a half dozen songs:  three from each album.

Randy Ellefson, like many independent artists, understands that giving away a few full tracks encourages people to buy the rest.  He also accepts PayPal as well as credit cards, so purchasing his music is incredibly convenient.  If more artists made their music as easy to find and buy, we wouldn’t need the big record companies.

I stumbled on the Radio Nostalgia Network yesterday. It has quite an impressive collection of old radio shows as well as new podcasts of older music. The main page has links on the left that will lead you to blogs for the eight individual “channels.” However, the channel names in the links do not accurately describe what’s on the channel. You’re better off clicking on the link without expectation. For example, the link to Channel 7 is labeled “Celtic Clans.” Although the channel does contain a link to the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast, that’s not the channel’s entire content. I know at least two friends who will be interested in the Sock Hop Soda Shoppe podcasts.

There’s a lot to explore on the site. A whole bunch of old time radio theater, old Gunsmoke and Lone Ranger episodes, lots of older music, and who knows what all else. I haven’t had the time yet to fully explore the site.

I found the site a bit difficult to navigate until I discovered the individual channel program guides on the right of the blog pages. The program guides give a much more accurate description of what’s on the site. The eight channels are:

1. Classic Old Time Radio
2. Yesterday USA
3. Radio Theater
4. Comedy Showcase
5. Science Fiction
6. Westerns
7. Music
8. Matinee Movies

Each of the channels has multiple sub-channels, I guess. The Matinee Movies channel contains videos rather than just audio.

If you like old radio, that site will keep you busy for a long, long time.

Back in the early 90s, Jeff Duntemann published a book called something like Free Stuff from the Internet. I don’t remember all of what it described, but it opened my eyes to a whole new world of stuff that I could get free–for the price of a download. The treasure trove of the Internet made Compuserve look like a pauper’s purse.

We take a lot of free stuff online for granted these days, but often we don’t take advantage of it. Until recently, I had absolutely no idea how much free music is available online. For years I ignored Napster and other music sharing sites, figuring that the “free music” available online was either pirated copies of copyrighted works, or 1-minute song samples. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Sure, there’s plenty of pirated music out there, but there’s also an incredible amount of legally available music, free for the download or just point your favorite music player at it and stream it down. For example, a few months ago I discovered GaragePunk.com, which creates weekly podcasts consisting mostly of old-fashioned garage band rock and roll. They have a half dozen or more DJs who create 30- or 60-minute podcasts covering many different sub-genres.

Not into garage punk? How about the Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour, whose stated purpose is to to encourage grassroots, Americana music. You like bluegrass? Try World Wide Bluegrass or the Bluegrass Preservation Society. More into reggae? Try Allspice Reggae.

That’s just a small sample of what’s available. Whatever kind of music you’re interested in, there’s probably at least one site out there that features it and allows you to download stuff or listen to a stream. It can be difficult to find some things, but blogs like Indie Surfer and Vague Space make it much easier.

I’ll provide updates here periodically as I continue to explore the free music space. If you’re looking for new music (which I was, having become bored with my current collection), look for yourself. You’ll be amazed at the selection you’ll find online.