Open Mic Idea

[john]

Hi

 

exploring the open mic idea.  @Popthree Staff have talked about an open mic a few times. The format we thought worked best was a 1 hour live meet up as a livestream open mic. We’ve been preparing for a number of livestream events from chats and interviews to performances, plus webcam performances. Ideally we’d like to make the open mic available on our YouTube channel, both live and as a video after the fact. Doing the livestream without preserving a video may or may not be an option if we use 3rd party services. Apart from that, a video of the open mic is likely to be the best advert for gaining an audience and performers, which could also be brilliant for our community. At least that was our thinking.

 

We would need permission from the artists and songwriters to broadcast their music otherwise we would be laying ourselves open to potentially massive legal problems. Even if we were just to broadcast to a closed group, we would still be broadcasting. So far advice ranges from getting signed or esigned permissions, to check boxes agreeing to copyright. No one I have spoken to suggested, never mind recommended, doing it without permission. The days of sites getting a pass have gone. That aside, getting permission is the right thing to do. Still, it’s been this that has held us back.

 

The same would apply if we did the same with purely audio as a podcast. Certainly to connect everyone reliably, live, audio or video, performers and audience, we need to take advantage of 3rd party services.

We have most of the technology already sorted out. As we would effectively be the broadcaster we just need to finish work on the legal side. Even if we didn’t have livestreams available as video after the fact we would still need to have permission given to the account holder. To do it without that central account would be much harder as everyone would have to swap from feed to feed amongst other things.

 

Still, I think we can arrive at a simple solution to make it happen. We already have the YouTube channel and a central livestream account that will allow us to bring in guests.

 

Update:

 

We had a 45 minute convo about open mics, web performances etc at the staff meeting on Monday. We have so much already in place. Staff left the meeting each with tasks to help make it happen.

As it stands, for the open mic:

 

1. We’ll write a procedure and requirements needed (webcam, internet connection etc)
2. Performers would need to sign up beforehand
3. Test stream to iron out issues
4. We would set up a livestream and provide performers a link and join time
5. We will provide a basic copyright permission statement for performers to electronically sign and return before they perform. This protects the writer, artist and site.

we already have:

1. a YouTube, Facebook page and Twitter page
2. a tested stream set up
3. a re-stream account

We also thought to use the open mic to select artists to potentially offer an opportunity to be featured via SSUK including webcam performances (pre-recorded, not live) and interviews for the Independent Music Stage. Nice to get a solid opportunity from an open mic… plus the open mic itself is a great way to get feedback and find some new listeners.

 

Rest assured we’ll make it happen ASAP.

[Mahesh]

It was a great meeting indeed bud! Hopefully, we can get this going at the earliest! 

 

I'm looking forward to listening to all of you. Open mics are fun!