Association of Music Podcasting Changes Rules of Music Promotion

May 26, 2005 (Press Release) -- May 25, 2005 San Diego, CA The distribution of independent music through podcasting has grown exponentially since the podcasting phenomenon took hold in the fall of 2004. By combining RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds with media download software, podcasts can “transmit” to a computer or any major portable media device such as an iPod. Podcasting has been touted for bringing back the early-day spontaneity of radio broadcasting and thereby enriching the music listening experience. A rapidly growing number of listeners have subscribed to individual music podcast feeds to discover new and breaking music. In 2005, six founding members formed the Association of Music Podcasting (AMP) to provide support for music podcasters who share a passion and commitment to delivering high quality, legal, permission-based music to their combined and growing listener bases. Since then the organization has grown to a thirty member strong group, representing producers in most major metropolitan regions in the United States, as well as Canada and the United Kingdom. “AMP represents a new, non-traditional growing music marketing and promotion vehicle” says Derrick Oien, President and one of the founding members of AMP. “We are working outside the box and outside the common music industry channels to get new music to the listener. By invoking open-source network methodologies AMP is able to provide a distributed promotions and marketing solution for new music acts.” One of the biggest attractions that AMP offers to its member base is its growing library of downloadable “podsafe” music that members can access and include in their individual podcasts. Musicians who are interested in submitting their music do so and grant explicit permission to have their music distributed for promotional purposes within the AMP network. The AMP library comes at a time when ambiguities still linger in the industry regarding appropriate licensing fee structures for podcasted music distribution. Consequently, until appropriate waivers of liability are established, AMP members are precluded from distributing music from record labels associated with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), despite the windfall marketing potential this delivery mechanism provides the music industry. AMP circumvents these legal obstacles by playing license-granted music in the form of explicit permissions from the music creators/performers and those released under the growing Creative Commons copyright license format. “This really works for all the parties involved” says Jason Evangelho, founding member and Director of Programming for AMP. “We want fresh new artists who are hungry to promote their work, and music podcasters want great, legal music to play on their shows. The end result is that everyone wins, especially the listener.” AMP can be found on the web by visiting http://www.musicpodcasting.org. Contacts: Matt Galligan, Marketing & PR info@musicpodcasting.org Derrick Oien, President derrick@doien.com