There are several reasons to use royalty-free music from GovAccessMusic.com for your government access channel. Here’s just the beginning of the list!

(Disclaimer: I’m not a lawyer, and I’ve never played one on TV. Although the opinions expressed in this article are well reasoned, loaded with common sense, and correct, please don’t treat them as a legal opinion. That’s a whole ‘nother arena!)

1.  Using Royalty free music from GovAccessMusic.com lets you use high quality music for your channel without worrying about licensing issues. You don’t have to pay a royalty every time you play a tune. You don’t even have to track it. You just buy the CD, and you have permission to use the CD on your government access cable channel for a very long time (Check out the agreement terms for details).
2. You’ll be getting music DESIGNED for this application - music that is access-channel friendly. This saves you search time!
3. You avoid setting a bad example for the public. If YOU use unlicensed music on your channel, you are in essence saying that the law doesn’t matter - neither does right or wrong. By buying music from GovAccessmusic.com you are purchasing a license - staying legal (and in the right) - and setting a good example. in fact, you might want to put a slide up in your program, that the music has been purchased and licensed (If you send us a screenshot, we’ll put it up on the website!)
4. You’ll support talented musicians that, while not broke, are still hungry! (One of us has teenage boys in the house, so there’s never any food in the frig……)

More to come!

Since we began working on GovAccessMusic.com, I’ve been paying attention to various government access channels during my travels. It is fascinating the variety of music that I hear, and inevitably I reach some conclusions on whether the channel is useful based solely on the quality of the music and audio.

For example, if I hear music that is extraordinarily cheesy - it sounds like it was picked up at a flea market or is the musical equivalent of a veg-a-matic, I tend to believe that the channel isn’t worth my time. On the other hand, if there is quality in the music - it is interesting and recorded well (even if it is a style I don’t particularly care for), I’ll stop and watch for a while.

So the first point is to make sure you are using quality tracks - and that your audio sounds good. DON’T ASSUME! Make sure!

If you are taking the time to put material up for the public, take the time and make sure your audio is quality - or you will negate the work you put into the visuals.

Next time: Why royalty-free music?

The first question I think we need to deal with is at first glance stupid:

Why have music at all on your channel?

On the other hand, anyone who has had the audio go out on their channel knows right off that no sound = no viewers. We as a culture are SO used to having sound and picture wedded together, that we find video without audio boring (or even perhaps uncomfortable). So potential channel-surfing viewers skip right over the channel if there is no audio.

As one wise audio guy once said to me -

Video without Audio is just a silent movie.

So you really do need to use background music on your government access channel.

But what kind? What type?

That’s the subject for another entry!

As is usual with new efforts, it’s taking a bit longer than anticipated to finish up the first set of products. It is amazing how much creativity is required to setup a new business (something this creative person should NOT have been surprised by, but has been!)

We’ll be sending out an email when we’re almost ready to launch. If you’d like to join the list [which comes with 3 promises from us: 1) We'll never sell your contact info, or even give it away - unless a court says we have to, 2) We'll keep your info private, and 3) you won't get any spam from us - just short, succint tidbits], just send an email to announce@govaccessmusic.com.

As we continue the process of setting up govaccessmusic.com (we are taking our time to do it right!), we are wondering what exatly you are looking for in music for your station. Do you need more variety - better quality - a specific length - a specific type of music…..? Or maybe there is something you’d want us to avoid at all costs - something that really annoys you.

Let us know! You can eithe rleave a comment on this blog, or send an email to comment@govaccesmusic.com