As I said earlier this month, I am offering the “Monsters In Rome” record for free download until the 1st of November. I also said that I will be offering no more than 500 downloads, but seeing that November is just around the corner, and the number of downloads has just recently reached 500, I decided to keep the downloading free for a few more days. But no later than the 1st of November, so hurry up to download the album now, or PAY for the consequences!

In other news: I am working on a Christmas album – or EP, or whatever they call it – which I will publish on the last week of November. It will not consist of a collection of carols, as some might expect, but a bunch of original songs, in the manner of my first release. I have almost all of the details figured out regarding the release, but I am only going to make the title public for now: Monsters In The Christmas Album.

After reading a book on The Beatles, I learned that they released a Christmas album every year. I like The Beatles, but I don’t obsess over them, so I really wasn’t aware of this fact. It seemed like a good idea, so I started writing holliday songs that very day. I never did this before, I never thought I should do this before. But it was a really good idea, I though. Especially if misters John Lennon and Paul McCartney decided they should have seven of them…

Heck, even one of my biggest heros, Bob Dylan, decided to make one…

Of course, I later found out that the Beatles’ albums didn’t have only new and original songs on them. It was mainly a special album for the fans, sometimes with traditional carols or other well known holiday songs. Oh, well, I wasn’t going to back down now. I already had my third song scribbled down, had a few more ideas to go, and had already decided I will make it an album for Christmas. I mean, who knows, maybe I can accidentaly write the next Fairytale Of New York, right?

In any case, after two weeks of recording I can safely say it will turn out to be a decent sounding record. I am totally on top of this. It’s not that hard, once you decide on what you actually want. Of course, you have to bare in mind, this will be an indie rock album, not a bunch of original carols. At the same time, it won’t be a regular album either, which I can distribute throughout the year. It will be seasonal, but serious as it can get. I really can’t explain it any better, so I hope you understand.
I even have the title and the theme figured out. But I will only disclose the title for now: “Monsters In The Christmas Album”, hehe.

Some nice people around the web took the time to give my songs a listen and share it with their readers.
So go and spread the love, visit their sites, they might just become your to-go webspaces for indie folk news and music. Yep.

1. Largehearted Boy shared “Monsters In Rome” and “Afraid Not Scared” in the Daily Downloads section alongside some really cool bands. A bunch of folks came over to Indiefolker.com to check me out thanks to this.

2. The Mad Mackerel had a few nice words to say in the last Round-up where they also had two of my songs posted. It’s the coolest indie music blog with a fish in it, yep.

3. Faronheit’s Pick Your Poison has introduced me to a few very nice acts out there in the indie world, so I couldn’t be more thrilled to have been picked last Wednesday.

4. Walk Between The Lines is a Tumblr blog run by Martijn, a music lover with great taste from Rotterdam. You could spend hours here, so be warned!

I get my inside info about who posted what about Indie Folker by the means of Google Analytics and Alerts, I don’t really have any other means of finding out if anyone else wrote about me or has posted any of my music so I encourage you to contact me if you happen to read this and let me know so I can return the favor by posting a link right back. And if you do run a blog or a Facebook page or whatever please feel free to post my stuff, offer whatever music I’m currently offering for a free download, embed my YouTube videos, anything you like. Who knows? You might just get an extra reader or two .

P.S.: Don’t forget, I am currently offering the “Monsters In Rome” record for free, but only until the 1st of November, so head on over to the music page, and get it right now!

There is a frustration very common amongst all musicians of the digital era: that of using cover songs on sites like YouTube. So far, with the traditional broadcasting technology and traditional media, all of these issues have been resolved by clear legal regulations. The broadcasters (usually radio stations and TV stations) had to deal with all the hassle that was required to “clear” the song for legal performance. Most of the times these stations had bulk deals with the Public Rights Organizations to publicly perform any of the songs in their repertory. Same with the bars and nightclubs. It has never been the artists obligation to clear a song for public performance, the business owners always had to deal with that.
Youtube, however, is a whole different story. In order to legally use a video with a cover song on sites like these you need to obtain a synch license from the publishers. YOU, the artist have to do this, because YouTube is regarded as a service that is mainly just hosting the videos that the users provide. They are exempt thanks to a copyright law called the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. So in order to legally have your cover songs on YouTube you have to personally get the licenses required from the publishers (these are NOT ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, PRS, these are Performance Rights Organizations, but you can find the publishers on their websites).
Of course, Youtube COULD get the licenses on it’s users behalf, so everyone could just share and upload their cover versions of copyrighted material as they’d wish, but since they don’t have to, they most likely won’t bother. The worst that is going to happen, is they remove your video or disable your account, fortunately, so many performers still get away with uploading their cover videos to alternate Youtube accounts.