Music Hosting Platforms

Pedal Point Sound Music Studio

This post is the last in a 5-part series that looks at some of the complex legal issues involved with making and distributing musical recordings.  And even for small home music studios, it is important to be aware of music copyright laws – “ignorance” is not a valid defense in court !  It is incumbent on each music studio to do its “homework”, making sure it’s doing the right things to remain on the proper side of the law.  As mentioned in the first post of this series, Music Law, the music business is enormously complicated, and none of what I’ve discussed in this series of posts should be taken as legal advice.  That is why consulting a music law attorney is absolutely the best advice for safely navigating these waters.  
 
In my last post, I talked about “releasing” one of my recordings to the public via download from this Pedal Point Sound website.  I would like, however, to make my recordings freely available to a wider audience, for their listening enjoyment and for use in their own creative works.  This goal can be best achieved by sharing my recordings under a Creative Commons license on a music hosting platform.  Jamendo Music is an international host site that provides free streaming and downloads of music under Creative Commons licensing. (They also provide royalty-free music for commercial use.)  Based in Luxembourg, Paris and Brussels, Jamendo supports music of many genres, and has a large international community of Classical and Christian musicians.  For me, this is an ideal hosting platform that showcases my recordings to a very wide listening audience.  The Creative Commons (CC) license placed on my recordings is CC-BY-NC-ND  (attribution, noncommercial, no derivatives).  This licensing allows me to share my music easily with others, and it allows others to use the recordings in their own creative works, such as in videos, film, presentations, etc., without too many restrictions.  
 
My Jamendo Music page is located at:
   https://www.jamendo.com/artist/529848/gregory-tait

Here is an example of some of the music that can be freely downloaded as  .mp3  audio files from Jamendo :

The music recordings available on Jamendo can also be heard on the Music Tracks page here at the Pedal Point Sound website.
 
I also use another host platform, Internet Archive, to make my music recordings available for free download under the Creative Commons license CC-BY.  Internet Archive is a repository, or library, of electronic media of all kinds of creative works – music, images, videos, literature, photography, etc.  As a “library”, it doesn’t give my recordings the wide exposure that Jamendo does.  Users have to search for the individual recordings by name.  But it does store and make available the highest-quality audio formats , such as FLAC and WAV files.  And because the recording has a CC-BY (attribution only) license, others can freely use the recordings in their own commercial or noncommercial works, including derivative works.
 
My Internet Archive “page” is at: 
  https://archive.org/details/@pedalpointsound
 

Here is an example of some of the music that can be downloaded as FLAC and WAV audio files from Internet Archive:
 

The music recordings available on Internet Archive can also be heard on the Music Tracks II  page here at the Pedal Point Sound website.

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