Beth Sokolowsky, President of the TI:ME PA State Chapter, emailed me last week about a piece of software called ToolFactory, and a series of grants of $3,000 being awarded to educators who are looking to get started with podcasting in their classrooms - a true win-win.  Thanks Beth!

One of the most frequent questions I get when speaking to music educators about podcasting is how it can be done easily with a PC. While almost every sequencer available allows you to create podcasts, few have the user-friendliness associated with GarageBand and Apple. ToolFactory looks like a fun-to-use and easy way to create podcasts. Bright graphics, great sounding loops, an easy microphone interface, and simple file conversion make ToolFactory a perfect choice for music educators looking to integrate podcasting in a PC school. Download the demo of the software and check it out for yourself. And while you’re on the site, fill out a simple grant application (the next deadline is June 30th), and cross your fingers!

I welcome your comments and suggestions.

It looks like the CRB hasn’t won just yet. In a recent article on CNetNews.com, they are reporting that after receiving thousands of emails and letters, Reps. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) and Don Manzullo (R-Ill.) have introduced a bill in Washington called the Internet Radio Equality Act that would invalidate the March 2nd ruling by the CRB that would cause most Internet radio stations to fall silent in the very near future with a retroactive rate hike. The CRB is calling for the royalties currently paid by Internet radio stations to be raised 300 - 1200% by 2012 - rates that terrestrial and satellite radio stations would never see. The bill being introduced calls for a flat percentage of 7.5% of revenues to be paid by the Internet radio stations rather than the draconian per listener-per song fee of .08 cents climbing to .19 cents by 2010. The CRB royalty rate plan seems like an outrageous effort on behalf of the government, the RIAA, and SoundExchange to strangle webcasters. While musicians deserved to be paid their fair share of royalties, the burden should be shared equally by all outlets - something the CRB ruling clearly overlooks. Let’s hope that the bill on Capitol Hill gets some good lobbying and that the ruling is overturned for a more reasonable and equitable agreement. Internet radio stations should certainly pay royalties, but not at the expense

If you haven’t done so already, please visit SaveNetRadio.org and sign the ePetition to keep Internet radio alive.  It looks like their efforts are working. For an interactive diagram of the whole issue, click HERE. Please join me in signing the petition to help keep of the last great online music resources in business.

I welcome your comments and suggestions.

The RIAA is no stranger to controversy. Their fight against piracy looks more and more like a fight against the digital music revolution. Refusing to admit that the old methods for the distribution of music are quickly becoming extinct, the RIAA is not going away without kicking and screaming. Instead of embracing the future of music consumption and distribution, they are putting up as many roadblocks as possible to stop the inevitable. You would think that aside from the major record labels, the only other supporters of the RIAA would be record store owners - the very people that the RIAA is trying to protect - right?

An Op-Ed piece that ran in the New York Times reports just the opposite. One of my favorite technology blogs - TechDirt - ran a story a few weeks ago that covered the Times Op-Ed piece under an entry titled: Record Store Owners Blame RIAA for Destroying the Music Industry - pretty harsh words for a group that should be protecting them. In a nutshell, the record stores are going out of business because of the “boneheaded” decisions of the RIAA over the past decade. In their attempt to strengthen album sales the RIAA killed the single so that fans would have to buy the album to get their favorite songs. Instead of buying the album, consumers looked to services like Napster asking “Why should I buy the whole album if I just want one song?”. Sound familiar. With the death of the 45 and cassette single, it’s no wonder people looked for alternative means of acquiring music.

While I am a firm advocate against music piracy, the RIAA really didn’t help their cause with that move. When the RIAA went after Napster full force, CD sales began to plummet. Did the attention to Napster cause more people to look for downloading methods - even though they were illegal? Would piracy be the problem it is today without the unintended PR caused by fight? Finally, did the RIAA completely underestimate the power of the Internet by ignoring it? Instead of exploring the online distribution of music, did the RIAA actually cause the now seemingly inevitable death of record labels? With so many people self-producing and distributing their music online, who does the RIAA blame? It seems as though everyone except the RIAA knows the answer. For music lovers like myself - especially one who grew up listening to albums while staring at the cover art - it’s a shame that my children won’t know how the music industry used to be. Or is it?

I welcome your comments and suggestions.

If you’ve ever looked for one central source for relevant music education web links and haven’t come across K-12 Resources for Music Educators, please let me introduce it to you. Since 1995, Cynthia Shirk, a fabulous music educator from Mankato, Minnesota, has maintained the most amazing free music educator resource page filled with thousands of annotated links categorized into band, chorus, orchestra, classroom music, all music, and even technology. With nearly two million visitors since it began, K-12 Resources for Music Educators (also located at K-12music.com) is the perfect page to bookmark and explore. Everything from lesson logs to lesson plans can be found here, and Ms. Shirk diligently updates the page to avoid dead links. I strongly recommend checking the site out if you’ve never seen it before. If you haven’t visited in a while, check it out. There are always new links popping up.

I welcome your comments and suggestions.

The Theremin is the grandfather of all electronic instruments and is one of my favorite pieces of technology.  Invented by Lev Termen (aka Leon Theremin) in 1919, the Theremin has become well known for its use in pop music during the 1960’s and 1970’s (even though the Beach Boys actually used a Tannerin in their song Good Vibrations.  I bought my own Theremin a few years ago on eBay and love taking it out every once in a while for my students to see and hear.

Theremin World is fantastic website and resource for finding information about Theremins - where to buy them, FAQs, how to play them, photo gallerys, even downloadable Theremins.   If you’ve ever wondered how these instruments work or how electronic music got started, check out the site - it’s worth a visit.

I welcome your comments and suggestions.

As I was reading Evan Tobias’ fantastic blog, Catalysts and Connections, I came across a link (as you often do when reading other blogs) to the Electro-Music 2007 Festival, being held this upcoming June in Philadelphia, PA.  Called the Woodstock of Electronic Music by the Philadelphia Enquirer, I was intrigued to read all about the festival, its history, and the performers scheduled to appear.  After checking out the site, I am quite upset that I’d never heard of it before.  It sounds incredible.  The festival hosts three days of experimental electronic music concerts, jam sessions, lectures, and demos.  I was wondering if there is anyone out there who has been to the festival in the past and what you thought of it. I’d love to hear about it.  Unfortunately for me, I am already scheduled to be somewhere that weekend, but I will definitely try to make it next year.  If you happen to be in the Philadelphia area on June 1st through the 3rd, I would strongly recommend making your way to the Cheltenham Arts Center to check out the latest advances in electronic music - and please send me an email with your thoughts about it.

I welcome your comments and suggestions.

In preparation for a session that I presented at IAJE this past January, I found a great resource for jazz educators - the entire Real Book collection available as Band-In-A-Box files.  The late jazz bassist Paul Phillips took the time to compile all of the wonderful jazz tunes from the Real Book and arrange them in Band-In-A-Box - and incredible amount of work.  When you visit his site you can download a zip file that contains all of the files.  There is also a link to get the Band-In-A-Box demo version so that you can play them if you don’t already have BIAB.  You can utilize these files in your classroom by either posting the chord changes online for your students to practice soloing over, or you can select a few tunes, import them into a program like GarageBand, and burn CDs for your students to practice along with.

From a copyright standpoint, the site raises a couple of questions.  Historically, the Real Book has been an underground resource for jazz musicians for many years.  While there are legal versions available, the original was far from it.  Thankfully, chord changes are not covered by current copyright law - but melodies are.  There are melodies included on the files that you download from the site.  If you are going to use this amazing resource for your students, my advice is to delete the melody track.  Everything else in the file is completely fine.

I welcome your comments and suggestions.

I got an email yesterday from Tim Westergren, founder of the Internet radio site Pandora.  Pandora is my personal favorite of the many sites out there, and I’ve mentioned the problems facing Internet radio and Pandora in a previous post.  The email I received asked me to sign a petition to help convince Congress to overrule the incredibly high, and seemingly unfair royalty rates now imposed retroactively on Internet radio sites by the Copyright Royalty Board.  I urge you to join the effort to help save sites like Pandora that will most likely go out of business if something is not done to change this ruling.  Please click HERE to sign the petition to let your government representatives know that sites like Pandora need to stay online.  Save Internet Radio!

I welcome your comments and suggestions.

In an effort to utilize the dialectic possibilities of wikis in my 8th Grade General Music Classroom, I set up a new wiki on a great website called PBWiki with just one question: What is Music? A true wiki is a space where anyone can edit the site - including each others’ responses. My 8th Grade General Music students have been posting their critiques of various works from the classical domain for a few months now, and as a way to discuss aesthetics in music during the 20th Century, I posted a provocative definition of music by composer John Cage - Music is desired noise. I then gave students the password to the site that allows them to post their own personal definitions of music - either as a reaction to Cage’s definition or a reflection on their own aesthetic values. While their definitions aren’t due until this Friday, they have been quite active in their posting so far.

There are some other educators utilizing wikis with their students. Alex Ruthmann, for example, used the wiki format with his Cranbrook Composers project to create a musical encyclopedia, and a tech tips page for working with software. Other possible ideas for wiki integration could include:

• Post only one definition of music and have the class edit it until a common definition is agreed upon
• Have students who are working in groups post their files on the wiki for editing at home
• Create a musical glossary containing definitions of musical terms
• Have the students create program notes for the Winter or Spring Concert
• Create an illustrated composer biography wiki

I am quite pleased with the responses of my students so far - their responses display a level of maturity that some might not expect from 8th graders. I believe that when students are utilizing a technology that they are comfortable with, they somehow loose the pretenses that might be preventing them from being so loquacious in class. Just a thought…

I welcome your comments and suggestions.

There are many videos of classic jazz television performances from the 1950’s and 60’s posted on YouTube - videos of Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane, Duke Ellington and more. I posted about Google Video and You Tube back in January. Since the acquisition of YouTube by Google Video, most of the videos on Google Video are now hosted on YouTube. Unfortunately, both Google Video and YouTube are currently blocked websites in my school district because there are many videos hosted on the site that you wouldn’t want young children to access - especially at school. In order to view these videos, you must be logged on to the site, even if you download the video player that comes with Google Video. This means that I can’t show any of these amazing videos in my classroom. Or can I?

In an effort to seek a solution to this problem, a student told me about a cool application called TubeSock that allows users to download YouTube videos and convert them to a number of file formats - including audio only. Simply open the application (you can get a free trial version that allows you to download the first 30 seconds of a video or you can pay for it $19) and paste th YouTube URL into the provided window, choose the file format you’d like to download the video in, and TubeSock does the rest.

So, is this legal? There have been numerous stories in the press lately about lawsuits against Google for the posting of copyright protected content on their site. However, using short video clips in the classroom is protected under the Fair Use provision of the DMCA. While there a certainly copyright protected videos that are hosted on the site, the jazz performances that I have seen have been there a long time, and they have not been pulled off of the site yet. The copyright question is a bit confusing to everyone right now. Is it legal to post OLD television performances from the 1950’s and 1960’s? Probably not without permission. Is it legal to use these performance in the classroom? While they are on the site, I would say it is a Fair Use, but we’ll see…

I welcome your comments and suggestions.