Changes: Music Blog Guide

Latest revision as of 01:40, 5 January 2007

This page is aimed at showing newcomers the ropes, by recommending services, and offering general guidance on how a mp3 blog works. In addition, this page serves as a general guide as to the unwritten code of ethics most good mp3/music bloggers follow.

File Hosting[]

EZ Archive
Advantages: Unmetered bandwidth, easy to use.

Disadvantages: Occasionally unavailable. Small yearly subscription fee.

YouSendIt
Advantages: Free, easy

Disadvantages: Files only available for 7 days or a limited amount of downloads. Takes downloader to a second page for download.

.Mac
Advantages: 2 GB Storage (but you can upgrade to 4 GB but more importantly 250 GB transfer bandwidth), produces short link names (e.g. homepage.mac.com/yourname/filename), access to iWeb to publish photo albums and videos online, .Mac email service. Available to both Mac and PC users.

Disadvantages: Costs 99$ a year. They might turn off the service for a few days if you use too much bandwidth.

University Provided Hosting
Advantages: Many universities provide free web space for their students. Varied storage and bandwidth.

Disadvantages: Only available to university students.

Blogging Services[]

Blogger
Advantages: Free and easy to use. Good selection of templates, reasonably easy to customize without detailed knowledge of HTML.

Disadvantages: Subject to seemingly random outages - normally just as you've submitted a lengthy post you didn't bother to back up.

Movable Type
Advantages: Higher amount of control.

Disadvantages: Complicated, most versions costly.

Wordpress
Advantages: Great control, free, but does not include hosting.

Disadvantages: Somewhat complicated.

Type Pad
Advantages: Easy to use.

Disadvantages: Cost prohibitive.

Mp3 Blogger Ethics[]

Direct Linking: Direct linking uses the bandwidth of the host you're linking to, and for many sites, that extra bandwidth costs money. Do the world a favor and get your own file hosting.

Plagiarism: If you quote outside sources in your blog, make it clear that you're quoting, and supply some type of attribution. Generally, an obvious link back to the original post is satisfactory. Bloggers don't take kindly to it if it appears you're trying to take credit for their work.

Full Albums: If you enjoy the music, it makes sense to support the artist and respect their license terms. Posting full albums without permission is generally frowned upon in the MP3 blog community -- particularly if the albums are commercially available and/or well-known.

Copyright Law: If you post a song without permission from the copyright holder, you may be in violation of copyright laws in your country. Some MP3 blogs post music only with permission, and getting permission is easier than you might think -- at least from lesser-known artists. Many bands can be contacted directly through MySpace.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-This page is aimed at showing newcomers the ropes, by recommending services, and offering general guidance on how a mp3 blog works. In addition, this page should serve as a general guide as to the unwritten code of ethics most good mp3/music bloggers follow.
+This page is aimed at showing newcomers the ropes, by recommending services, and offering general guidance on how a mp3 blog works. In addition, this page serves as a general guide as to the unwritten code of ethics most good mp3/music bloggers follow.
@@ Line 6: / Line 6: @@
 Advantages: Unmetered bandwidth, easy to use.
-Disadvantages: Apparently frequently down. Small subscription fee.
+Disadvantages: Occasionally unavailable. Small yearly subscription fee.
 '''''YouSendIt'''''<br>
 Advantages: Free, easy
-Disadvantages: Files only available for 7 days.
+Disadvantages: Files only available for 7 days or a limited amount of downloads.  Takes downloader to a second page for download.
+'''''.Mac'''''<br>
+Advantages:
+GB Storage (but you can upgrade to 4 GB but more importantly 250 GB transfer bandwidth), produces short link names (e.g. homepage.mac.com/yourname/filename), access to iWeb to publish photo albums and videos online, .Mac email service.  Available to both Mac and PC users.
+Disadvantages: Costs 99$ a year.  They might turn off the service for a few days if you use too much bandwidth.
+'''''University Provided Hosting'''''<br>
+Advantages: Many universities provide free web space for their students. Varied storage and bandwidth.
+Disadvantages: Only available to university students.
 == '''Blogging Services''' ==
@@ Line 28: / Line 39: @@
 Disadvantages: Somewhat complicated.
+'''''Type Pad'''''<br>
+Advantages: Easy to use.
+Disadvantages: Cost prohibitive.
 == '''Mp3 Blogger Ethics''' ==
 '''''Direct Linking:'''''
+Direct linking uses the bandwidth of the host you're linking to, and for many sites, that extra bandwidth costs money.  Do the world a favor and get your own file hosting.
-Don't do it. Uses bandwidth, costs money.
-'''''Plagarism:'''''
+'''''Plagiarism:'''''
+If you quote outside sources in your blog, make it clear that you're quoting, and supply some type of attribution.  Generally, an obvious link back to the original post is satisfactory.  Bloggers don't take kindly to it if it appears you're trying to take credit for their work.
-Don't do it. It is cheap.
 '''''Full Albums:'''''
+If you enjoy the music, it makes sense to support the artist and respect their license terms.  Posting full albums without permission is generally frowned upon in the MP3 blog community -- particularly if the albums are commercially available and/or well-known.
-If they're commercially available, what's your justification?
+'''''Copyright Law:'''''
+If you post a song without permission from the copyright holder, you may be in violation of copyright laws in your country.  Some MP3 blogs post music only with permission, and getting permission is easier than you might think -- at least from lesser-known artists.  Many bands can be contacted directly through [http://www.myspace.com/ MySpace].