Some of you reading this may be surprised to learn that, in the previous millennium, I wrote and recorded a whole bunch of music.  Some others of you already knew that and might be wondering if I’m ever planning to do that again.

(This has been sitting in my Drafts for a month, so this is actually a July Music Update. :)

The answer is yes!  As a matter of fact, I’ve written not one, but TWO songs in the past decade!

Actually I’ve written more than that, but I’ve only recorded two songs that are close to “feature complete.”  They aren’t the pristine studio quality that I used to strive for, but they’re good enough for non-audiophiles listening on their crappy MP3 players. :)

The question is:  What to do with them?  I don’t have (or want to find) a record label and I don’t have the ambition to start one so I can get my stuff into iTunes or Amazon.  I don’t expect to make a living as a musician anyway so there’s no particular reason to “market” them.  I just want to make them available in case anyone wants to hear them (mainly family and friends).  Although I admit it would be cool to build up a cult following. :)

So I’m planning to upload new MP3s under an Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share-alike Creative Commons license.  That should provide adequate protection against blatant thievery.  The song composition would still remain under full copyright; only the sound recording would be licensed under Creative Commons.  (There are actually two copyrights on a song:  One for the song composition, usually owned by the music publisher, and one for the recording, usually owned by the record company.)  So theoretically you wouldn’t be able to record your own version of my song and make a top 10 hit out of it, but you could download my song and put it on your iPod, or burn my song to a CD, or use my song for your Internet radio station or in your YouTube video (as long as I get a credit).  I say “theoretically” because I’ve never seen an adequate explanation of how Creative Commons licensing applies to sound recording copyrights versus song copyrights – every “distribute your music with Creative Commons!” explanation I’ve read sounds pretty ambiguous, and in any case I’m sure there aren’t any legal precedents yet.

I also feel like I should start uploading all of my previous music, good, bad, or indifferent.  I’ve often wondered what would happen to my “discography” if I were to get hit by a bus or something.  I don’t have any kids and Cynthia would probably chuck all my computers and master tapes into the trash the day after my funeral anyway.  But it seems kind of a shame for all these hours and hours and hours of music to disappear forever.  Somebody, somewhere, sometime might find them in the digital universe hive mind collective and enjoy them.