Akronology Media

[The O'Neil Twins]

Hello, fellow KVRians . We've done something that you'll hopefully be interested in.

My brother and I founded Akronology Media, www.akronology.com , and it is a site that offers a slight twist to an existing Creative Commons license.

Basically, Akronology Media is a place for artists who want to see their music featured in films (or games, etc.) free of charge, but don't want to risk the chance of their country songs turning into rap songs.... or vice versa Visit our site for a more detailed explanation.

Now I've already discussed this with Mia Garlick from the Creative Commons organization, and though CC is technically not allowed to give legal advice, she did assure me that our interpretation of the license "is consistent with the clear signaling that Creative Commons licenses are designed to achieve"

Since Akronology Media is in its early stages, our license is still fairly malleable; hence, we're looking for suggestions that'll help better serve your needs. Though there are some things that we can't do (example: we can't modify the license in an attempt to collect particular royalties), we will do whatever we can to please you all.

While you may certainly email your questions/suggestions to us, we would appreciate it if you could just post them in this thread because it may help out others who have questions similar to your own.

If you want to test us out by submitting material (like a song or the info for your artist page, etc), again feel free to just post it in this thread. By doing that, it'll put more pressure on us to get the job done quickly . But seriously, we'll have your material on our site within a few days (we have to screen everything before we put it on our site).

And like we stress at www.akronology.com/musician-agreement.htm , we really don't want you to submit your best material. Yet if you've got a song that didn't quite make it into your album, we'd love to host it at our site!

Thanks everyone. Take care.

Sincerely,
Michael O'Neil

P.S. As is mentioned on our site, we'd like to establish a forum at an already existing one. I've been thinking that KvR would be a good idea because it may bring some more filmmakers here. What do you all think? (admittedly, it might not be the best idea since the server's been taking a hit lately... )

Another P.S. Please excuse the song that's currently posted. I made it with a $5 pair of headphones... and a lack of talent

[donbrad3]

Making music for a visual media is my dream! I would love to just get something of mine used....it would be great for a portfolio....Please visit my Soundclick site for the type of music I create (I am capable of a variety of stuff, not just what is posted there; please don't mind the mp3 quality as I can provide a high quality wav). Feel free to contact me with any questions or interest in my production capabilities. This would really get me going in the right direction Thanks!!

[The O'Neil Twins]

Making music for a visual media is my dream! I would love to just get something of mine used....it would be great for a portfolio....Please visit my Soundclick site for the type of music I create (I am capable of a variety of stuff, not just what is posted there; please don't mind the mp3 quality as I can provide a high quality wav). Feel free to contact me with any questions or interest in my production capabilities. This would really get me going in the right direction Thanks!!

Thanks don! Love the tunes (I'm in the middle of listening to Trial, very ) Don't worry about .wavs, the mp3s are already very high quality!

I can include you on the site by tomorrow. Just make sure you read our "Musician's Agreement" at www.akronology.com/musician-agreement.htm so you know what to submit (like which songs, artist page info, band pic, etc). You can either post all of the needed material here in this thread or email us at theoneiltwins@gmail.com .

Like I said in the previous post, we really don't want you to give us your best material. The reason is because we want filmmakers to get a taste of what you do, and if they need to use your style consistently throughout the film, you can negotiate any terms you want with them for your better music. So that's why on your artist page at Akronology Media you should point to your soundclick account so that filmmakers can contact you.

Now realistically speaking, don't expect much to happen for a while. We've only gotten started with this and the main thing I'm hoping for by posting here is for musicians like yourself to tell me how to improve the license. After I get everyone's recommendations, I will hire a lawyer to ensure its proper efficacy (and maybe we'll use our current policy page as an "easy explanation" page).

Plus in all honesty, we may only get budget filmmakers interested in us.... so don't expect your music to appear in Academy award-winning films

But we definitely need people to start testing us out, so read our "Akronology Media Introduction" and "Musician's Agreement" at www.akronology.com/musician-agreement.htm and please feel free to submit whichever songs you want to. Thanks

P.S. If you need help with anything that's discussed in the "Musician's Agreement" (or if you need help setting up an mp3 preview, etc.) please just ask. We'll be more than happy to help!

[The O'Neil Twins]

I just downloaded Rectify. Awesome.

[donbrad3]

One question.....what risks do you foresee with copyright infringement. I figure I better ask here since I am sure others are wondering the same

Thanks for the info and kind words! Ok.....on my way over to the website............

[donbrad3]

I actually have a suggestion for your website.

I read through the agreement, but I thought it may be helpful to both you and artists alike if the filmaker (game producer, etc...) submitted their own information when downloading a song. What I mean is this: A filmaker finds a song on your site they like, clicks on the link to download it.....a page opens where they are asked to provide a small amount of information about themselves so that the artist may be notified of the song's use. This dialogue could be kept to quite the bare minimum so that the user does not feel intimidated by having to provide sensitive information about themselves. I realize that this is only for posterity, but I think it could lend to the history of one's portfolio as well as a 'track record' for you to be able to advertise.

On the other hand, you could always require people to sign up (free of charge, of course) in order to have access to the free downloads (similar to Soundclick). They could be required to submit a valid email address where they recieve a confirmation link telling your server that they can be added to the list of users who are granted access to the free downloads. A lot of websites are doing this type of thing (I have actually grown quite accustomed to it myself and don't mind at all), though I do not know how hard it would be to code. Then all they have to do is log-in, download what they want, and your servers could then send an automated message to the artist telling them of the use of their work.

As I said these are merely ideas for the future of your website. I find this to be a fabulous idea for aspiring artists like me and would like to take full advantage of it

Or did you have ideas like this already?

[The O'Neil Twins]

One question.....what risks do you foresee with copyright infringement. I figure I better ask here since I am sure others are wondering the same

Thanks for the info and kind words! Ok.....on my way over to the website............

Also just downloaded Odyssey.... even better

In regards to the query about copyright infringement, anything's prone to infringement. But I think what you're asking is how effective is the license in protecting your copyright (for instance, if you have grounds to sue).

The thing is... even the Creative Commons ( www.creativecommons.org ) maintains "If you find that your license is being violated, you may have grounds to sue under copyright infringement." There's no certainty that you're protected with CC, and that's why they can't offer you legal advice.

But in regards to Akronology Media, I'd say that the main risk involved is how I've worded the license in regards to synching a song with a moving image (i.e., film). But before I go further, I have to backtrack a bit and explain what would happen if you chose to solely rely on a Creative Commons license.

Since the Creative Commons organization regards synching as a derivative work, you have to choose the "Attribution" license if you wanted to let filmmakers freely synch your music in their films. However, this opens up the possibility of other musicians remixing your song into something else (like my example "from a country song to a rap song") because Derivative works are allowed under the "Attribution" license.

I built this site for musicians who may want their music in films, but don't want to worry about the integrity of their music being lost; hence, that is why I went with the "Attribution-NoDerivs" license and made the appropriate nullifications.

But as I said earlier, the problem lies in how I define the proper usage of a song when it is to be synched in a film. Obviously, the filmmaker is going to have to use sound effects, and so I included a condition that basically says "Yeah, you can apply the sound effects... but not in a musical sense." See the problem? What defines "musical"?

But even if some rap artist made a video based off of your song and twisted our policies so that his voice is not considered "musical" (btw: they'd still have to fully attribute the song to you.... which might not be a good thing ), I did include a safeguard to combat such abuse. Whenever the song is in isolation (a strictly audio environment, such as a soundtrack or the radio) the song must be presented exactly as is given from our site. Hence, that would kind of be odd for the rap artist to make his videos, and then his CDs have no lyrics on them .

I really hope that you all don't think this is the final form to the license . I admit that I'm more of a filmmaker than a musician, and so that's why I came to you all for some help in rewording this to your liking.

I hope I answered your question don. I didn't mean to type so much... sorry

[The O'Neil Twins]

I actually have a suggestion for your website.

I read through the agreement, but I thought it may be helpful to both you and artists alike if the filmaker (game producer, etc...) submitted their own information when downloading a song. What I mean is this: A filmaker finds a song on your site they like, clicks on the link to download it.....a page opens where they are asked to provide a small amount of information about themselves so that the artist may be notified of the song's use. This dialogue could be kept to quite the bare minimum so that the user does not feel intimidated by having to provide sensitive information about themselves. I realize that this is only for posterity, but I think it could lend to the history of one's portfolio as well as a 'track record' for you to be able to advertise.

On the other hand, you could always require people to sign up (free of charge, of course) in order to have access to the free downloads (similar to Soundclick). They could be required to submit a valid email address where they recieve a confirmation link telling your server that they can be added to the list of users who are granted access to the free downloads. A lot of websites are doing this type of thing (I have actually grown quite accustomed to it myself and don't mind at all), though I do not know how hard it would be to code. Then all they have to do is log-in, download what they want, and your servers could then send an automated message to the artist telling them of the use of their work.

As I said these are merely ideas for the future of your website. I find this to be a fabulous idea for aspiring artists like me and would like to take full advantage of it

Or did you have ideas like this already?

I did think of having users sign up...... but I was always worried that it would scare potentials away. But I've begun to realize how much of a moron I am, because hey, I login to kvr all the time

Now the question remains...... can somebody help me set that up? I admit I'm not the best webmaster around, so I kinda don't want to screw it up .

Of course, I can always get my friend from Akron to handle it.