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Whisperings:
Music Submissions and License Agreement
Are
you a solo piano artist interested in submitting your music for
inclusion on the Whisperings: Solo Piano Radio broadcast?
If
so, it's important that you first understand the VISION
behind the Whisperings project.
 From
the start, our goal was to establish Whisperings
Solo Piano Radio as a viable promotional tool for piano
artists. There is a HUGE audience for contemplative piano music
to today's market. Our success as a radio broadcast
has proven that. In terms of pure numbers of listeners,
Whisperings is the #1 Broadcast on the entire
Live365.com radio network. If you combine all of
our streams, we generate well over a
million listening hours a month. The program can be tuned into from
Live365.com, TIVO, iTunes, Windows Media Tuner or this web site. Our
success led to our recently being featured in the
Wall Street Journal.
However,
Whisperings
is more than just a radio broadcast, it's a community of piano artists. A bulletin board
group
is available for networking, advice, idea-sharing,
promotional tips and
gig-sharing. If your music is included on the broadcast,
we encourage you to become an active participant
in the community.
The more you invest in Whisperings in terms
of your time, energy and gifts, the more Whisperings will
invest in you in terms of playing your music and
inviting you to participate in future concert events.
Submission
Guidelines:
1) Only solo piano work will be considered. If
your CD includes a small amount of additional instrumentation, that's fine as long as the CD is
mostly solo piano. A good rule of thumb
is this: the more solo piano music your album contains, the more
likely it is we'll use it. It's fair to say that if your CD isn't
at least 70% solo piano, we'll probably pass
on it. This is because...
2) We must be
able to promote your CD as a solo piano album.
If we can't reasonably call your CD a solo piano
album, we can't promote it to our listeners.
Though we get a lot of great music that isn't
solo piano, we have to keep our target audience
in mind. Think about it - if you bought a CD after
hearing a country song on a radio station,
and the album turned out to be mostly hard rock
or hip-hop, wouldn't you be disappointed? The same
here. We're promoting solo piano music, so we have
to promote solo piano albums.
3) The CD must contain original or public domain
works. Due to licensing restrictions, we cannot play cover tunes,
only original music or public domain works (i.e. Christmas,
Traditional, Classical
tunes.) Solo piano albums containing two or three
cover songs will be considered,
just know up front we are primarily interested in
orginal music. The less original music on the CD,
the less likely it is we'll use it.
4) Your CD must
be retail ready. If our visitors love your music, they'll want
to purchase your CDs. We want to help them do that and so, to that
end, your CD must be available as a retail product somewhere
for purchase. If your CD isn't there already, you might want to
submit it for inclusion at CD
Baby. Also...
5)
Your CD must LOOK professional. CD Buyers have come to expect
high quality products from our artists. Your CD must LOOK
the part. Send us
the same CD you'd send to a customer if they bought it online. We
want to see your retail presentation. Customers who buy your
CD will judge your (and our) level of professionalism based on your package
presentation. Make a good impression.
6)
Your CD must SOUND professional. Just about anyone can record
a "solo piano" album on their home keyboard
these days. While we have nothing against keyboards,
Whisperings radio features a rich acoustic
piano sound. If your CD was recorded
on a digital piano, we'll still consider
it, but just know that we do prefer a genuine acoustic
piano sound.
7)
Send no more than two different CDs to start with. Some folks are sending us their entire CD catalogs
for review, and because we are receiving so many submissions
it's a bit overwhelming. Just send us your best
one or two CDs to start with (just one copy). If we want more for the broadcast,
we'll ask.
8) Please include your contact information
with your CD. Specifically, an email address and phone number
where we can
contact you if we have questions.
9)
Review time is currently six months. We receive CDs in the mail
almost every day now. We give every CD we receive our complete attention,
listening a dozen or so times before selecting songs for the broadcast.
What that means, however, is that it may be six months before we
get to yours. Please allow us at least that long review your
music. Don't worry, if we choose your music for the broadcast, we
will be in contact with you.
10) Reviewing music
via web sites. It's not uncommon for an artist
to ask us to review their music via their web site
before sending a CD in to us. Our response to that
is; no, we'd rather not. Your odds of being included
on Whisperings are music greater if you send your
CD in to us for review. Why? Because we listen to
the CDs we receive over and over again, allowing ourselves
time to warm up to your music. There are several
artists on the playlist whose CD didn't grab us
the first time through, but after repeated listening
we really liked it. So if you have confidence in
your music and think fits within our format, send
it in.
The
"Sound" We're Looking For...
Keep
in mind that we are looking for a particular
piano "sound." Consider the broadcast title, "Whisperings."
Does your music fit within that context? Is it quiet, contemplative,
and melodic? If so, send it
in. But do realize that we don't include every album we receive.
In fact, we only use about 20% of all submissions.
If we DON'T choose you, that doesn't mean we don't like your music.
It just means it doesn't fit the exact sound we're looking
for.
And
Finally...
If we
decide to include your music on the Whisperings playlist,
we'll need to you sign and mail us this
license agreement.
The agreement is very simple. By signing it...
- You
confirm that you are the *sole* copyright owner for
any music that we might include on the program. Whisperings can
only play your original compositions - no cover
songs. However, we CAN include public domain works, so long
as you own the copyright to your particular arrangement.
- You
confirm that as the copyright owner, you give Whisperings permission
to broadcast your music, royalty free, in exchange
for the promotion we'll provide for your music to our
listeners. On average, you can expect each one of your songs to
be streamed about 10,000 times during a single month. That's
a LOT of free exposure we're giving you to our listeners
which we try to translate into CD sales for you.
- You
confirm that you will represent yourself as the licensor
of
your music to us, and that you are not expecting any other
agency (BMI, ASCAP, SOUNDEXCHANGE, the RIAA) to do that for you. In other
words, we are asking YOU to give us direct permission to play your
music. By signing the license agreement, you are stating
that you will represent yourself and that
these other organizations cannot collect
licensing fees from Whisperings for
you.
Feel
free to send in a copy of the signed license with
your submission if you wish.
Does
that all sound good? If you have questions about the license, read
this. If everything
sounds great, send one copy of your CD(s) for consideration to:
David
Nevue
Whisperings Radio
6858 B Street
Springfield, OR 97478
Please note that we are not able to return your materials.
We will be in touch if we decide to include your music. Thank
you!
David Nevue
Whisperings: Solo Piano Radio
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