COLLECTIVE BRAINPOWER REQUEST: Blogging Music

Got a collective brainpower request for y’all, folks!

Here’s what I want to do: I want to write about particular pieces of music on the blog here and have links that legally allow me to share the music I’m talking about with the reader. I have no interest in posting illegal files. I’m not looking to have folks download the file and keep a copy, just the ability to let them listen to it. In fact, I’d encourage them to buy it via a link to one of the major music purchase places online. Also, I’d like them to be able to hear the whole piece rather than just a 30 second clip from Amazon or Wal-Mart (as I’ve done before).

Oh, and I prefer not to have to buy a lot of special junk to do this (though I wouldn’t mind paying a mostest amount).

I know that there are ways to do things somewhat similar to what I have in mind, but nothing that is quite what I’m looking for.

Do any of y’all have thoughts?

Much obliged!

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

8 thoughts on “COLLECTIVE BRAINPOWER REQUEST: Blogging Music”

  1. Could you just create a page in your webspace where the song plays as the background music? That way people couldn’t download it, but they could hear it for the sake of your discussion, and you aren’t really “sharing” it, just playing it for us? Or would that count as an “unauthorized public performance? I doubt it.
    Also, I know that there is a way to post pictures on your site that we can’t be downloaded (is it a rollover?), perhaps there is the same with a sound file.
    Or, maybe, I’ve misunderstood your question, and this was a waste of space!!

  2. Aaaaaand maybe I wasn’t clear either, so , I meant:
    YOu create something like http://www.jimmyakin.org/boynamedsue and set that song as the background music file that starts on loading by the viewer, and the text on that page is you talking about it. You can just create a blog entry to that links to it.

  3. What I’ve done in the past for this purpose is just google “songname stream” or something similar and link to other people’s streams. Or, recently I opened windows media player, went to the music search, and that linked me to a couple streams of songs I wanted to link to (from record companies, etc.) and when the music is playing in WMP, go to file, properties, and it shows you the URL of the content, and just link to that.
    Is there a song or artist that you’re looking for? Maybe we could help you locate people who are already streaming legal copies.

  4. The poor man’s solution would be to just point them over to amazon.com
    for example this. The only problem being that not all songs are available via amazon.com, and most are just clips so you may not get what you want. Sometimes BMG or Columbia House will give you a better selection. Sometimes going to a musicians website will too. I don’t know if doing it this way will give you any credit for sales per se, but you could always put a link…
    Sorry if that’s not to helpful…

  6. Just don’t make the music play automatically! I hate having to deliberately turn someone’s background music OFF, especially if I’m surfing on a break at work or late at night and have my speakers on.

  7. Thanks for the suggestions, everybody!
    And don’t worry, I promise I won’t make music play on the main page automatically. 🙂

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