Chapter 8. MusicIssues and Sources

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Licensing Madness

• Free Music Services

• Local Indie Music

• Playing Your Own Music

"Looks to me like podcasting is the replacement for radio.... People want a huge amount more diversity and interesting music and taste, that the airwaves by their very nature can't accommodate. So we are going to see a massive democratization of broadcasting of music, I think, through podcasts."

John Buckman, CEO Magnatune

Not everyone agrees with what John Buckman said with regards to podcasting leading to a democratization of broadcasting music, but we think he's a pretty smart guy and are inclined to agree. Besides John is hardly a lone voice in the wilderness.

"What really attracted me to it [Garageband.com] was the idea, fairly idealistic idea, of democratizing the music industry, and helping make a merit-based system for music to be discovered and promoted. And what I learned pretty quickly was that the music industry was extremely dependent on the radio industry, and you can't really democratize the music industry without somehow also doing something about the radio industry. And so it is very exciting to have podcasting come along as a trend which really proves that there is an opportunity to democratize the radio industry."

Ali Partovi, CEO of Garageband.com

Both John and Ali understand the tremendous potential of podcasting to democratize (open up for the masses) the music and radio industries. By contrast, here is a quote from a Wall Street Journal article (October 10, 2005) on podcasting:

"All podcasting is about is making it easy for the small percentage of the population that owns an iPod to record to a specific device.... People have been recording their favorite radio shows since the age of cassette."

Bob Neil, President/CEO of Cox Radio Inc.

To which we can only say, "Wow!" We could understand that comment if it was made in October of 2004, but by October of 2005 one would expect the CEO of a major radio broadcasting corporation to know about podcasting and understand it is so much more than just putting content on an iPod. The democratization of the music and radio industries will be a battle, and you as podcasters will be the ones carrying the muskets.

In this chapter, we introduce you to some great resources that can supply you with the ammo you will need most: independent music. But first we address the issues involved with playing major record labels' (copyrighted) music on your podcast.