OC ReMix on iTunes

[Level 99]

Thought about this in the car, talked briefly in IRC about it, did a little research and here's where I ended up:

OC ReMix isn't distributed over iTunes because it can't be added to the iTunes store. From my limited understanding, this is because the music we make can't technically be sold, and a) there's no way to sell a song for free in the iTunes store plus there are costs associated with having an iTunes artist account. So anyone who wants to add their OC ReMix music to iTunes has to add it themselves, either after downloading mixes/albums separately from the web servers or getting the torrents.

Would it be possible for OC ReMix to set up an iTunes user account, and create a podcast that is in the iTunes store? It looks to me that the rules for the store related to podcasts is the same as it is for any free content online (fair use, right to distribute, blah blah blah - basically, the same rules that OC ReMix has been running under for a long time). Podcasts themselves are always free; iTunes does not allow people to charge for it.

Each podcast would be a posted mix from the site. Podcasts in the iTunes store are merely directory listings and organized download management - the RSS needed for podcast listing, as well as the media associated, are all hosted somewhere else. OC ReMix already has the file mirrors for posted mixes, so that's really not an issue, I would think. The RSS would get updated every time a new mix is posted.

This would solve a number of issues all at the same time. It would allow people who can't use torrents to get the whole current collection of songs. It would automatically keep that collection organized based on the preference of the person subscribing (ie. keep only mixes for the last 30 days, etc). It would cut out the middle step for adding downloaded mixes to the iTunes library from the web or torrents. I haven't tried it yet on my podcast feed, but I'm assuming that if someone deletes an item from the RSS, it wouldn't show up for any new people subscribing or updating (useful for when/if a mix is removed from the site for some reason).

The only issue I can think of would possibly be a tagging one (source/artist crediting, sufficient fields for sort, and others I'm probably overlooking). Assuming that tagging ends up not being a problem, I would hope this is something that could be pursued in the near future. I know it would make a lot of people happy!

[DarkeSword]

I'm against it. We want people to come to the site to get remixes. Then they're more inclined to leave a review, participate in the site, and check out other remixes, projects, competitions, etc.

[Liontamer]

There's the expected snag of whether the tagging would be allowed to stay the same. Provided that we did not have to compromise our file tagging (or it was in a way that djp is OK with, per Last.fm), I'm in favor of this. The only other questions I have are whether iTunes would have a page that would have a description of the "podcast", and whether anyone else has successfully done a podcast that was just used to serve free music.

If we expanded the reach/audience of the ReMixes, and the artist info and URLs were all up in 'em, I don't see how that hurts the site. By that extension, obviously there are people that subscribe to the OCR YouTube that don't/won't come to the site; they just favorite the videos they like. But at the same time, expanding our presence there has also led to a traffic increase by new visitors from YouTube. This was in spite of djp's reservation that it could pull visitors away from the main site. Well we've done it for a year now, and we get more visitors as a result, not less.

As far as outside distribution, we could argue it, but there's really no argument to me. There are a lot of instances where people encounter OC ReMixes without being on the site. More awareness is good and would trickle down to the site. The entire point of Stevo's idea is to go where the people are.

We could have argued 6-8 years ago that we shouldn't have had our music on Audiogalaxy, Kazaa and LimeWire, because people could get the ReMixes without coming to the site. That reasoning would be just as short-sighted as dismissing iTunes.

If we didn't have to compromise the presentation of the tracks, and Stevo's speculative idea was actually doable, that would obviously be great. I just don't believe it would be that simple. It's worth looking into though.

[Skummel Maske]

Hopefully related to the subject: What about Spotify? I remember there being a discussion about it some time ago. From what I can see, most people (at least here in Norway) nowadays listen to music through Spotify rather than from the hard drive, avoiding the hassle of having to download and store the music themselves.

[Level 99]

In terms of tagging, I did a quick mockup of standard podcast XML for RSS feeds. Just so you could see the logical placement of things:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd" version="2.0">
    <channel>
        <title>OverClocked ReMix</title>
        <description>This is the podcast feed of all remix posts on OverClocked ReMix.  Visit the site for music, albums, forums, and more! Founded in 1999, OverClocked ReMix is an organization dedicated to the appreciation, preservation, and interpretation of video game music. Its primary focus is www.ocremix.org, a website featuring thousands of free fan arrangements, information on game music and composers, resources for aspiring artists, and a thriving community of video game music fans.</description>
        <link>http://ocremix.org</link>
		  <itunes:category text="Music">	       
			<itunes:category text="Video Games" />
			 </itunes:category>
        <copyright>See the Terms of Use for copyright information. http://ocremix.org/info/Content_Policy</copyright>
        <language>en-us</language>
        <lastBuildDate>Fri, 28 May 2010 13:30:10 -0500</lastBuildDate>
        <pubDate>Fri, 28 May 2010 13:30:10 -0500</pubDate>
        <itunes:subtitle>Free video game ReMixes in a variety of styles and genres, by hundreds of musicians, from hundreds of games!</itunes:subtitle>
        <itunes:summary> Founded in 1999, OverClocked ReMix is an organization dedicated to the appreciation, preservation, and interpretation of video game music. Its primary focus is www.ocremix.org, a website featuring thousands of free fan arrangements, information on game music and composers, resources for aspiring artists, and a thriving community of video game music fans.   Visit the site for music, albums, forums, and more! http://ocremix.org/ </itunes:summary>
        <itunes:keywords>audio, music, video, game, remix, free</itunes:keywords>
        <itunes:author>OC ReMixers</itunes:author>
        <itunes:owner>
            <itunes:email>djp@ocremix.org</itunes:email>
            <itunes:name>OC ReMix</itunes:name>
        </itunes:owner>
        <itunes:image href="http://blog.philstrahl.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/20060212_oc-remix_thumb.png" />
        <itunes:explicit>no</itunes:explicit>
<!--
	    <item>
            <title>djpretzel - Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest - Sturm und Kong</title>
	    <link>http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02001/</link>
            <enclosure url="http://iterations.org/files/music/remixes/Donkey_Kong_Country_2_Sturm_und_Kong_OC_ReMix.mp3" type="audio/mpeg"  ></enclosure>
            <pubDate>Fri, 28 May 2010 13:30:10 -0500</pubDate>
            <itunes:subtitle>djpretzel - Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest - Sturm und Kong</itunes:subtitle>
            <itunes:summary>djpretzel - Sturm und Kong.  OCR02001, ReMix of Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest - K. Rool Returns (Title Theme), by David Wise.  Nintendo, 1995, SNES.</itunes:summary>
            <itunes:duration>3:30</itunes:duration>
            <itunes:keywords>audio, music, video, game, remix, free, album, electronica, instrumental, orchestral, synths</itunes:keywords>
            <itunes:author>djpretzel</itunes:author>            <itunes:explicit>no</itunes:explicit>
	   </item>

Now, what is key is the inclusion of the link to the actual ReMix, because even if the tagging were to pass for the podcast, it will not have the same fields and placement as the traditionally distributed mixes do. However, it still gets the music out, and includes all the important information. Should be searchable, too.

I checked around and there's a bunch of sites that send out free music via podcast feed, though none with as many as OCR'd be doing. I can talk with Brushfire about possibly doing a test with our own RSS feed, posting up an OCR song with tagging, testing it, and then removing, and seeing what happens, if need be.

[anosou]

Hopefully related to the subject: What about Spotify? I remember there being a discussion about it some time ago. From what I can see, most people (at least here in Norway) nowadays listen to music through Spotify rather than from the hard drive, avoiding the hassle of having to download and store the music themselves.

Ditto in Sweden and I know it's spreading in UK. I'm pro-Spotify and since we don't want monetary compensation I doubt there'll be any issues?

[WillRock]

Yeah spotify would be a great place to have ocremixes, altho you can import your itunes library into spotify now so its a bit pointless for those that have remixes on their itunes.

As for the podcast idea, I like that but it would mean the artist would have to be OverClocked Remix or something similar with the artist in the file name... A small drawback but for those that download the remixes from itunes, they might get the idea that ocremix is one person or something, and as silly as that sounds, i've seen people make that mistake before

[Fishy]

Ditto in Sweden and I know it's spreading in UK.

I know a lot of people who use it, seems to be doing well in UK land yah.

[The Biznut]

I am positive I have asked the same question Stevo asked, releasing OCReMixes as podcasts through Itunes. and I am positive I got the same response about having people come through the site to get the music.

I would agree with Larry's post 100%. A podcast release format would save me a lot of time, I'll have every OCReMix to date, then 2 months down the road I'll sit down for 45 minutes and manually download everything that's new. It would make things VERY simple for someone like me.

[Liontamer]

In terms of tagging, I did a quick mockup of standard podcast XML for RSS feeds. Just so you could see the logical placement of things

Could I get you to redo that with a ReMix with my updated tagging layout? It might not be dramatically different (especially since OCR02001 uses mostly the same stuff). But I can send you some.

[Level 99]

Could I get you to redo that with a ReMix with my updated tagging layout? It might not be dramatically different (especially since OCR02001 uses mostly the same stuff). But I can send you some.

Yup, I'll use the latest ReMix for the template, unless the new tagging layout has not been implemented yet as such. If you want to, feel free to email me specifics.

Edit: And here's the result. The typical tags have lots of metadata which seems only appropriate to put into the summary, leaving the artist, game, and song title to be the "name" of the item. I've done my best to logically put data in its place, but the Comment tag (with the whole submission letter) I have left out for the moment.

fans.</description>
        <link>http://ocremix.org</link>
		  <itunes:category text="Music">	       
			<itunes:category text="Video Games" />
			 </itunes:category>
        <copyright>See the Terms of Use for copyright information. http://ocremix.org/info/Content_Policy</copyright>
        <language>en-us</language>
        <lastBuildDate>Fri, 2 July 2010 13:30:10 -0500</lastBuildDate>
        <pubDate>Fri, 2 July 2010 14:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
        <itunes:subtitle>Free video game ReMixes in a variety of styles and genres, by hundreds of musicians, from hundreds of games!</itunes:subtitle>
        <itunes:summary> Founded in 1999, OverClocked ReMix is an organization dedicated to the appreciation, preservation, and interpretation of video game music. Its primary focus is www.ocremix.org, a website featuring thousands of free fan arrangements, information on game music and composers, resources for aspiring artists, and a thriving community of video game music fans.   Visit the site for music, albums, forums, and more! http://ocremix.org/ </itunes:summary>
        <itunes:keywords>audio, music, video, game, remix, free</itunes:keywords>
        <itunes:author>OC ReMixers</itunes:author>
        <itunes:owner>
            <itunes:email>djp@ocremix.org</itunes:email>
            <itunes:name>OC ReMix</itunes:name>
        </itunes:owner>
        <itunes:image href="http://blog.philstrahl.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/20060212_oc-remix_thumb.png" />
        <itunes:explicit>no</itunes:explicit>
<!--
	    <item>
            <title>Rozovian - Seiken Densetsu 3 Aurora Borealis OC ReMix</title>
	    <link>http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02061/</link>
            <enclosure url="http://iterations.org/files/music/remixes/Seiken_Densetsu_3_Aurora_Borealis_OC_ReMix.mp3" type="audio/mpeg"  ></enclosure>
            <pubDate>Thu, 1 July 2010 14:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
            <itunes:subtitle>Rozovian - Seiken Densetsu 3 Aurora Borealis OC ReMix</itunes:subtitle>
            <itunes:summary>Album Title : http://www.ocremix.org | Date : 2010 | Genre : Game | Composer : Hiroki Kikuta | <ARTIST WEBPAGE URL> : http://www.ocremix.org | <BAND> : OverClocked ReMix | <CONTENT GROUP> : Seiken Densetsu 3 | <COPYRIGHT> : Square | <ENCODED BY> : Ad G (ad.rozovian@gmail.com) | <ENCODING SETTINGS> : Logic Express 8.0.2 | <ORIGINAL ALBUM> : Seiken Densetsu 3 | <ORIGINAL ARTIST> : SNES | <PUBLISHER> : OverClocked ReMix | <SETSUBTITLE> : OCR02061 | <WWW> : http://williammichael.net/aocc_2k9</itunes:summary>
            <itunes:duration>5:48</itunes:duration>
            <itunes:keywords>audio, music, video, game, remix, free, album, electronica, orchestral, synths</itunes:keywords>
            <itunes:author>Rozovian</itunes:author>            <itunes:explicit>no</itunes:explicit>
	   </item>
	    <item>
            <title>WillRock - Mighty Morphin Power Rangers It's Morphin Time OC ReMix</title>
	    <link>http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02060/</link>
            <enclosure url="http://iterations.org/files/music/remixes/Mighty_Morphin_Power_Rangers_It's_Morphin_Time_OC_ReMix.mp3" type="audio/mpeg"  ></enclosure>
            <pubDate>Mon, 28 June 2010 13:30:10 -0500</pubDate>
            <itunes:subtitle>WillRock - Mighty Morphin Power Rangers It's Morphin Time OC ReMix</itunes:subtitle>
            <itunes:summary>Album Title : http://www.ocremix.org | Date : 2010 | Genre : Game | Composer : Iku Mizutani, Kinuyo Yamashita | <ARTIST WEBPAGE URL> : http://www.ocremix.org | <BAND> : OverClocked ReMix | <CONTENT GROUP> : Mighty Morphin Power Rangers | <COPYRIGHT> : Bandai | <ENCODED BY> : William Harby  | will.rock@hotmail.co.uk) | <ORIGINAL ALBUM> : Mighty Morphin Power Rangers | <ORIGINAL ARTIST> : SNES | <PUBLISHER> : OverClocked ReMix | <SETSUBTITLE> : OCR02060 | <WWW> : http://myspace.com/willrock078</itunes:summary>
            <itunes:duration>4:50</itunes:duration>
            <itunes:keywords>audio, music, video, game, remix, free, guitar, rock</itunes:keywords>
            <itunes:author>WillRock</itunes:author>            <itunes:explicit>no</itunes:explicit>
	   </item>
	</channel>
</rss> 

[The Biznut]

Bump. Any further progress on this topic?

[Flexstyle]

FWIW, I know SGX has done this sort of thing (releasing free tracks thru iTunes podcasting) with his Protagonist Records site. I think he just uses Wordpress with a podcasting plugin alongside Feedburner to track downloads.