Guide to independent electronic music that's free on the web

What is "copyleft"? The opposite of copyright, as explained by Richard Stallman. Where copyright protects a creator's right to control copies and changes to a work, copyleft protects a user's right to copy and change a work.

A license that allows free re-use and modification of creative work so long as the derivative work remains available on the same terms. Copyleft – formally known as the “General Public License,” or GPL – was initiated by computer programmer Richard Stallman and the Free Software Foundation. By protecting the creativity and energy of the commons from private appropriation, the GPL has made free software and open source software possible. A related set of licenses for other types of creative works has been devised by the Creative Commons.

Open Licensing explanations – creative commons

The Creative Commons License refers to the name of several copyright licenses released on December 16 , 2002 by Creative Commons , a US nonprofit corporation founded in 2001 .

These licenses all grant certain baseline rights , such as the right to distribute the copyrighted work on file sharing networks. The copyright holder has the option of specifying certain extra conditions:

• Attribution (by): Permit others to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work and derivative works based upon it only if they give you credit.

• Noncommercial (nc): Permit others to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work and derivative works based upon it only for noncommercial purposes.

• No Derivative Works (nd): Permit others to copy, distribute, display and perform only verbatim copies of the work, not derivative works based upon it.

• Share Alike (sa): Permit others to distribute derivative works only under a license identical to the license that governs your work.
  

Guide to net labels
A netlabel , also called online label , web label or mp3 label , distributes its music in digital audio formats (mainly MP3 or Ogg ) online. Netlabels often work like traditional record labels to produce and promote music projects (such as albums or compilations ). Most employ guerrilla marketing to promote their work. Few netlabels earn money for participants.

The primary difference between netlabels and record labels is that netlabels emphasize free downloads, as opposed to physical publishing ( CD , vinyl or DVD ). Often, the music is released under licenses that encourage sharing, such as the Creative Commons Licenses . Artists typically retain the copyright .

WHERE TO FIND COPYLEFT MUSIC

These record labels sponor bands that whose works are available under free-use/creative commons license. That means that if you alter their work, and release it as your own- all you have to do is allow your own work to be altered, too!!

• www.Magnatunes.com Internet Music Without the Guilt. Magnatune, the open music record label.

• www.Archive.org

Copyright laws explanation

A copyright is a set of exclusive rights granted by government for a limited time to regulate the particular form, way or manner in which an idea or information is expressed. Copyright may subsist in a wide range of creative or artistics forms or "works", including literary works , movies , musical works , sound recordings , paintings , photographs , software , and industrial designs . Copyright is a type of intellectual property .

Copyright law only covers the particular form or manner in which ideas or information have been manifested, and is not designed or intended to cover the actual concepts, facts, styles or techniques which may be embodied in or represented by the ideas or information. Which allows for appropriation, or the borrowing of ideas, between works of art within the same field.

MP3 ENCODING These are 2 common forms of mp3 audio

variable bit rate (VBR) encoded MP3s are generally smaller than standard MP3s of the same sound quality and generrally sound better, especially in the high frequencies.
Also, it's great for spoken word audio as there are often pauses and silence between sentences.

constant bit rate encoding uses a consistent quality level throughout the length of the mp3 file. It is the standard default setting for most cd ripping software

OGG ENCODING

FLAC ENCODING is the best

OPEN SOURCE CD RIPPER???

STATIONRIPPER – LEGALITY OF = none

-what's open source software?

Audacity is an open-source multitrack audio editor for windows, linux and mac. Ease of use is one of Audacity's key features. It can be used to make recordings.
You can use Audacity on several different platforms including Macintosh, Windows, and Linx, as seen below.

You should write e-mails to any record label or promotional group that may be interested in your station. Sometimes it takes a lot to impress a business enough to send you free stuff, but sometimes it doesn't! You should try and contact those who fit your station's profile, in whatever genre you choose.