Curt Siffert

So, after doing a bunch of research, I've finally figured out how to apply the creative commons licenses to my works here.

All my piano musings have a by-nc-sa license applied to them. That means that you can, without having to contact me and ask, download the pieces, and share them provided my name stays attached. You can also adapt them into your own works provided you apply a similar noncommercial license to the resultant work, and again give me attribution.

All my songs have a by-nc-nd license. That means that you can, without contacting me to ask, download and share my songs provided you keep my name attached. nd stands for "No Derivatives", meaning you can't adapt them into your own works. So it's a slightly more restrictive license.

You can of course feel free to contact me for more permissions on any of them, though. Some of the art musings have already had extra permissions granted to them (even though they are connected to my tunes, I let the artist have commercial purposes for the resultant art). Just contact me, I love to collaborate.

It was fun figuring out the technical end - in addition to each page having a creative commons badge, I was also able to give each song a friendly page name, such as http://curtsiffert.com/phoenixgrace for Phoenix Grace, and even embed the copyright information into the mp3 for each song. That means that as these songs propagate to file-sharing networks, the url for the song home will be spread out there as well, so people will be able to find me.

Well, part of the process of getting to know my own website is reacting to new information. I was so much in the mindset of having this be a site about my creative process and development of a jazz musician that I didn't think anything of posting recordings of me playing jazz standards, but it is evidently illegal (and I should have remembered that).

The songs still exist on the site, but just in unpublished (not public) form. I can of course send recordings of me playing to my friends. So I will eventually open up the site to memberships, and add my friends (which are most of you) to the list - that way they'll be available by request.

In the meantime, I have posted a new Piano Musing called A New Steeple. I've also posted another one of my originals, As One, to make up for the loss of the standards. I'll be using the Bits And Pieces podcast more for song ideas, roughdrafts, and other original material from now on.

More postings coming soon about the art/music collaboration that Kasey Baker and I are doing.

I just had a rather odd phone call.

Riiinng

"Hello?"

"Hello?" Foreign accent. Caller ID said "Farias Pro" at 818-909-2262.

"Yes, hello?"

"Yes, is this... museworld productions?"

"Uh, yes, yes this is Museworld Productions." No one has ever called me for Museworld before.

"Yes, I am calling to inquire about ringtone licensing for one of your songs."

"Oh, really. Which song?"

"I Will Survive."

"Oh, you mean As One?" Odd, because I had just started working on a piano/voice arrangement of it and had just hit a breakthrough. Very strange.

"Yes. I am calling to inquire about ringtone licensing."

"That's possible. Can I ask who you're calling on behalf of?" She mentioned Farias, it was meaningless to me. "Well, let me give you a little more information. I'm Curt, I wrote the song. Did you find this off of the website? It's a personal website of mine." She sounded a little confused. "Oh, then did you find it off of ASCAP?"

"ASCAP, yes."

"Have you heard the song?"

"No, no I haven't. But your name is Curt? Curt Siffert? Thank you for that."

"Sure. Are you calling on behalf of an organization?"

"No, I am calling on behalf of my boss, Gustav (something). It's for a new company."

"Oh, I see. Well, licensing is a possibility. What did you have in mind?"

"Well, I am just calling to inquire about who to talk to about licensing. I have that information now, your name and number. So let me get some details together and we will call you back. Thank you so much for your time!"

"You're welcome."

No idea what that was all about.