Tom has contributed Another New Ager in the Calmness section and Birthday Jelly in Up Piano.

(Yes, it is a pun - referring to some jamming he did on his birthday a while back.)

We’ve also added some tracks from Joey - Morley Magic, Scratch That Itch, and Whistle While You Work It (featuring an incredible jazz whistler named Francesco Bonifazi). All of these tracks are in Light Jazz. Click on the links, check out the podcast, and enjoy!

GovAccessMusic.com - Quality, Interesting, Royalty-Free music especially designed for use by Government and Public access cable TV channels.

To celebrate…..uhhhhh…… Friday (why not?) here’s a free ringtone from a GovAccessMusic.com track for your cell phone. Don’t forget, your carrier may charge you something - depending on your cell plan (but we can’t do anything about that!).

This is Sunday Brunch, from the Light Jazz album on GAM.

Senate Records at Myxer

We’ve been hard at work getting several new tracks ready to post on GovAccessMusic.com but it IS summer, and vacation is beckoning!

Now, granted, I’m not going to be thinking about any of that while strolling the streets of Savannah, GA - but I certainly will get back to it after vacation.

So what’s coming? Some guitar work by Joey, plus some new piano-based music by Tom…. all of it different from the tracks already posted on the site.

So keep an eye out - we’ll (of course) post on this blog when the new podcast is up…..or you could subscribe and receive it automatically. Check the link on the main site at GovAccessMusic.com.

So what kind of music should you use on your Government Access or Public Acccess channel?

(Anything from GovAccessMusic.com, of course!)

I’m sure you’d like something a bit more useful, so here are some thoughts:

1. Match the style of the music to your content. You probably shouldn’t use uptempo edgy guitar music for screens describing disaster preparation procedures -  and real slow meditative tracks don’t work for pictures of graduation ceremonies or school activities.
2. Match the time of day as well - uptempo might work in the morning (to pep people up), but then again it might be annoying for those who wake up slowly.
3. Variety is good - but within limits. It can be jarring when successive tracks vary wildly stylistically or in instrumentation. For example, going from a slow vibraphone piece directly to a hard rock guitar-driven piece probably won’t work - UNLESS you are doing it to grab attention that something just changed (like going to a new program).
4. I personally like using Christmas music during the summer months. It’s a nice reminder of tunes that people realy do like, but are dreadfully tired of by December mainly becuase the radio stations have been playing Christmas music since mid-October).

So do you have any suggestions? How do YOU decide what music to program? Leave a comment, and we’ll probaly write about it later!

We had a question about the Previews you listen to at GovAccessMusic.com - and one about the file format we are using for the tracks you purchase.

Previews

Some library sites you visit give you a standard 30 second preview and others let you hear the entire track. We decided there were disadvantages to both approaches - 30 seconds won’tlet you hear the various sections of the track, but our clients probably don’t have time to listen to all 3 or 4 or 5 minutes of the full track.

So our previews are an edited version of the full track - each contains snippets from the major sections of the track, so you get a full representation of the track. Previews are created from the full track, and generally run between 1 and 2 minutes long.

File Format

We are using high bitrate mp3s for the downloads - generally 256kbit - 320kbit. As musicians, we are aware that mp3 (no matter how high the bitrate) are sonically lower quality than CDs - but we have found them good enough for these purposes.

If you are interested in CD quality, please accept our compliments for being concerned about your audio……and keep an eye out for the CDs we’ll be offering in the near future!