Information for artists
From WWR
Get played on Whole Wheat Radio
WWR welcomes music from independent artists in the genres mentioned below. Although we currently pay PRO fees to Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) we do not pay any other royalties, nor do we air anyone or any record label who is a member of the RIAA without the artist's explicit permission.
We do provide some great exposure, a musically astute audience, and a way for listeners to easily buy your CDs directly from your site or CDBaby.
April, 2007 Update: - Due to ongoing efforts by various groups to financially cripple small all-volunteer grassroots webcasts such as Whole Wheat Radio, we are in the process of setting new criteria for all music that we will play. Basically, it's this. We only want to play music for which we have written permission from the copyright holder. The copyright holder acknowledges that we do not pay airtime royalties of any kind. (An excellent legal discussion of webcasting and royalties can be found here. The WWR community is discussing it on this page.) Following is a first draft of the kind of thing we're wanting artists to sign so that we can, once and for all, webcast without fear of unfounded lawsuits by royalty collecting entities who do not pay the musicians we air because they are too small.
All the money thatlisteners donate to us is publicly accounted for and is put back into improving the webcast. There are no paid employees here. Our entire purpose is to expose more people to the wonderful variety of high-quality music being created and produced by truly independent artists who depend on CD sales and live performances for financial support rather than airplay royalties that they are unlikely to ever receive.
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OUR AGREEMENT WITH YOU SIMPLE ENGLISH: By submitting music that you control the copyrights to for airplay on the Whole Wheat Radio webcast, you hereby grant permission for us to play that music without royalty payments of any kind to any person or organization - whether you are a member of that organization currently or become a member in the future. In return, you will receive whatever limited exposure Whole Wheat Radio can provide for your music to our small listening audience. By submitting your music to us for airplay, you are explicitly agreeing to these terms. If you are expecting royalty payments of any kind from airplay on Whole Wheat Radio, do not submit your music to us! DETAILS: By submitting your music, you hereby grant to Whole Wheat Radio a non-exclusive, worldwide license to webcast the materials you submit, or any portion thereof, as incorporated in any of their programming or the promotion thereof, in any manner and in any medium or forum, whether now known or hereafter devised, without payment to you or any third party. You represent and warrant to Whole Wheat Radio that you have the full legal right, power and authority to grant to Whole Wheat Radio the license provided for herein, that you own or control the complete exhibition and other rights to the materials you submitted for the purposes contemplated in this license and that neither the materials nor the exercise of the rights granted herein shall infringe upon or violate any common law or any other right of, any person or entity. You can request your music be removed completely from our music library by contacting us via email or in writing at any time. We will immediately remove any music you have given us permission to play from the music library upon your request. Whole Wheat Radio reserves the right not to use the material you submit at all and/or as little of the material as it chooses. You acknowledge and agree that by submitting your material you are not entering into an employment relationship with Whole Wheat Radio and that no relationship is created other than licensor/licensee. |
We realize that this agreement isn't quite ready to be sent out for artists to sign, but it's close. We are going to somehow integrate this agreement with a way for artists to indicate which tracks on their CDs they have copyright permission to allow us to play royalty-free. Other tracks won't be aired (i.e.; 'cover' songs).
Thanks for your understanding. Hopefully we'll have this all ironed out by mid-summer when we switch to a 100% "royalty-free webcast with copyright holder's written permission". It could be an exciting evolution in the history of Whole Wheat Radio and independent music webcasts because it helps pave the way for other small webcasters to also continue supporting truly independent artists.
Musical genres
WWR listeners are a varied bunch. Most are over age 40 and tend to enjoy listening to many different adult music styles. Most important, these listeners are very much open to listening to unknown artists. In fact, discovering new music is the main reason many people tune in to WWR.
The most popular music genres played on WWR are folk, singer-songwriter, jazz, blues, country, bluegrass, new age, classical and world music. Some pop and rock are also played, as well as some spoken word and poetry recordings. Music styles that are rarely if ever played on WWR are hip-hop, rap, hard rock, Christian, and teen-oriented pop.
Your level of musicianship
Unfortunately, a lot of people think "indie" means your kid brother in the bathroom banging on the guitar. It does not. A great many trained and part-time / full-time musicians are "indie" - and they will always get preference on Whole Wheat Radio over complete amateurs who have no web presence and / or lack musical talent. In other words, if you're just goofing around with music, that's great. But since there are only a limited number of hours in the day and we want to help working musicians, please don't bother submitting your music as it will probably be removed shortly thereafter. Our Editors look out for obscure musicians (i.e. have no web presence) and they are deleted regularly.
Sending your CDs
If you would like your music played on WWR, send CDs using snail mail. This is our preferred method and ensures the best sound quality. If you want to include promo material that's fine, but if it's on your website, save yourself the expense. We surf your site on-air when featuring your CDs.
Please do not send an email asking if we want your CD for airplay! If it is in the general genres we play here, the answer is yes - we will put it in the library and let listeners decide how much they want to hear it. If it's punk or hard rock or christian, you're just wasting your time. Honestly, why not just tune in for an hour or two and get an idea for the kind of music we play. If you fit, send us your stuff!
The mailing address is:
- Whole Wheat Radio
- 15528 E. Birch Creek Blvd.
- HC89 Box 8109
- Talkeetna, Alaska 99676
Please do not send your music MP3s via email. This is a sure way to not get your music played. Although it may seem strange for a site that is so technical, experience has shown that 98% of the music uploaded by the public is:
- not labeled correctly, if at all, which means we have no idea who performed it or its title
- produced by young amateur musicians who's only concern is 'what are you going to do for me?
- low quality (i.e. crap) and generally doesn't fit our format
If you can't take the time to produce and send a CD, then we'd rather not take the time to air your material.
Questions
Following are answers to some common questions.
Can I put a page here on your website?
See Artists' pages.
Can my music be downloaded by listeners?
Your MP3 files are not made available for download by Whole Wheat Radio. If you want to make your music available on your own website, that's fine. But we do not allow people to directly download MP3 files,and we are very strict about this policy.
I'm a fan. Can I submit music from my favorite groups?
The only problem with that might be if you are not the artist or record company for the artist. Unfortunately, WWR is no longer able to accept CDs from fans/friends of the artist without the artist's explicit knowledge/okay that their CD is being sent. I (Jim) can cut a little bit of slack, but not a whole lot.
The reason is because we are ramping up to send out broadcast release forms for artists to sign allowing us to play their music royalty free. Some artists will not be agreeable to this situation and we understand completely and fully support them in their decision.
Those that will tend to be okay with that agreement will be those who knew about WWR and sent their CDs because they wanted the airplay. The best option is always to contact the artist and ask them to send music directly so they're aware they will be played here.
Thanks for understanding. We always appreciate new music and *really* are happy when it comes with full support from the artist or their representative!
What can I expect if I submit music?
In the past, we included virtually all music that was sent to us in the music library and let listeners decide what stayed. Due to repeated abuse by amateur musicians and clueless hyped-up-on-heroin agents, Jim now takes a cursory listen to most of the music submitted that he's unfamiliar with. If it lacks professionalism and creativity or is not at least close to the genres WWR plays, it will not be included in the library.
Your music gets personal attention by a real, live, breathing person. If you send your CD, we "rip" it into MP3 files, and then tag the files with the performer's name, the name of the song, the name of the album, the track number, and the genre. These MP3 files are what we actually air.
Most new music is placed in the music library ASAP. We then put it in the list of "New Music".
If you have a website, the Whole Wheat Radio software automatically displays the link and a photo from your website while your music is playing. This allows listeners to go directly to your website to find out more about you — and potentially buy CDs or send you email. In addition, we provide a link to CD Baby, so listeners can purchase your music from that source.
Do listeners actually buy CDs?
Yes, they do. They buy from CD Baby, from Amazon.com and directly from the artists.
Can I monitor my music?
Whenever you want to see information about your music on WWR, use the search box below or the search feature in the left-hand column to find your Artists' page.
On your Artists' page you will see how many times your music has played on WWR. You're also welcome to check out other artists to see how many people have heard them.
To use the search below, enter the artist name, album title and/or song title in the boxes, then click "Search". This page will reload with a list of tracks below the search form. Click the artist name. On the next page that opens there will be a list of the tracks and data about the tracks. Summary information is on of the page.
If the Artists' link is red, it means that information about that artist is not yet added to the website. Anyone, including artists, with a WWR user account can add information to Artists' pages.
Can my music be requested?
Once your CD is in the music library, listeners (including yourself once you have created a User account) can easily request your music and it will play automatically (a DJ does not decide whether to air the request or not). Approximately 90% of the daily schedule allows requests to be made. In hours when we're '"live," we disable requests so we can focus on whatever is in the playlist for that hour.
We know you want your music to be heard, but please avoid over-requesting your songs. Unfortunately, over-requesting has the exact opposite effect the requestor is seeking. Instead of turning listeners on, it almost always makes them dislike hearing the over-requested artist and whoever is doing the over-requesting (listeners can see who made a request). Tips and details on requesting -- including how to tell if you're over-requesting -- are explained on the Request songs page.
Note: If you are an artist with tracks on WWR and you create a User account, you will have a User page and there is an Artists' page about you and your music. Use the Artists page for biographical and musical information that will be seen when listeners click on your Artists' link. Use your User page for more personal information and yourself as a listener.
Can I remove my music?
If you want your music removed from the music library, you can do so at any time. Just send an email, and it will be removed permanently. We only want to air what musicians want us to air.
Why are some of my tracks missing?
This is one of the most common questions musicians ask. There are a lot of reasons some of your tracks may no longer be in the library. (They all start out there - in other words, no one listens to your CD when it arrives and decides which tracks get put in.) The most common reason is that the listener community "ranked" the song (using 1-5 stars) not for the quality of the song or how "good" it is but for its suitability to Whole Wheat Radio. Another reason songs get pulled is that after a certain amount of airings to a certain size audience, if the song has no opinions or only lukewarm opinions it will get pulled to make room for new music that comes in.
The problem with a large online music library like Whole Wheat Radio's is that there aren't enough hours in the year to air everything that gets submitted 10+ times. So it's important that after a track has aired a few times and has not gotten much reaction, it moves aside to let other tracks have a chance to resonate with listeners. This happens to great tracks well suited to WWR as well as those not suited to WWR.
It's also important to remember that WWR is not like a traditional radio station. Rather than playing the same songs over and over, we'd really rather air songs a few times or only occasionally ... and encourage listeners to buy the CD rather than playing the song over and over on-air. Although WWR definitely has favorite songs that get a lot of airplay (and hopefully CD sales), we really want to encourage CD purchase over repeated airings whenever possible.
The bottom line is, no one single person or program director is pulling your tracks. And having tracks pulled isn't necessarily a bad thing because it allows for more focus on the tracks listeners think are very Whole Wheaty. Please do not ever think a missing track means it's "no good" ... because it may be an incredible masterpiece that just doesn't fit at Whole Wheat Radio. I (Jim) have personally seen many songs that I thought were outstanding get pulled because the community, as a whole, thought they didn't belong here.
