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Yo, monkey_man here.
I mentioned ages ago that I was going to make a website for users to download member's music in return for donations to the charity of their choice. Well now I'm thinking about it again and putting together designs and stuff, and I was wondering if there are any issues (not obvious, and I have thought about this in-depth) that you think I might have missed. Also, do you think it's a good idea? It'll take a bit of work, but it should be cool. Cheers.
Oh, specifically I'm thinking about legal notices, that sort of thing. I'm not going to have copyrighted work hosted, and there'll be 'report this artist' buttons here and there to cover naughty people.
I mentioned ages ago that I was going to make a website for users to download member's music in return for donations to the charity of their choice. Well now I'm thinking about it again and putting together designs and stuff, and I was wondering if there are any issues (not obvious, and I have thought about this in-depth) that you think I might have missed. Also, do you think it's a good idea? It'll take a bit of work, but it should be cool. Cheers.
Oh, specifically I'm thinking about legal notices, that sort of thing. I'm not going to have copyrighted work hosted, and there'll be 'report this artist' buttons here and there to cover naughty people.
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Yeah, they do mention that on the first page I linked to. I could always limit each user to 5 tracks, or contact Streamline and offer them free advertising, or something. Even just observing the limits of another domain provider would be fine, depending on what they were. Have to shop about, but I've used these before and they're ok.
monkey_man wrote:
> Oh, and this is the hosting place:
>
> [URL]http://www.streamline.net/uu.php[/URL]
>
> Very willing to put up that amount of money if I think the idea will
> take off.
http://www.streamline.net/tac.php
Be aware that as ever, theres no such thing as unlimited bandwidth. To quote them,
"High bandwidth usage: StreamlineNet offers an unlimited use policy by maintaining very large ratios of bandwidth per customer. In rare cases, StreamlineNet may find a customer to be using server resources to such an extent that he or she may jeopardize server performance and resources for other customers. In such instances, StreamlineNet reserves the right to impose the High Resource User Policy for the consideration of all customers (this is a very rare occurrence)."
Translation:
"You can use as much bandwidth as we want, if we think you're using too much then we'll cancel your account"
Unless you have experience with the company and know how they'll behave I'd be cautious. There are plenty of hosts around that are so generous to offer unlimited webspace & bandwidth. The reality is all they are offering is an acceptable usage policy which you aren't made aware of and they can change without warning. I'm not saying ths is the case with streamline.net but one of the UK's biggest hosts is quite famous for this behaviour so worth mentioning. ;)
> Oh, and this is the hosting place:
>
> [URL]http://www.streamline.net/uu.php[/URL]
>
> Very willing to put up that amount of money if I think the idea will
> take off.
http://www.streamline.net/tac.php
Be aware that as ever, theres no such thing as unlimited bandwidth. To quote them,
"High bandwidth usage: StreamlineNet offers an unlimited use policy by maintaining very large ratios of bandwidth per customer. In rare cases, StreamlineNet may find a customer to be using server resources to such an extent that he or she may jeopardize server performance and resources for other customers. In such instances, StreamlineNet reserves the right to impose the High Resource User Policy for the consideration of all customers (this is a very rare occurrence)."
Translation:
"You can use as much bandwidth as we want, if we think you're using too much then we'll cancel your account"
Unless you have experience with the company and know how they'll behave I'd be cautious. There are plenty of hosts around that are so generous to offer unlimited webspace & bandwidth. The reality is all they are offering is an acceptable usage policy which you aren't made aware of and they can change without warning. I'm not saying ths is the case with streamline.net but one of the UK's biggest hosts is quite famous for this behaviour so worth mentioning. ;)
Go for the obvious, I'm sure you could come up with a cool name, but some obscure title that might not relate to what you're doing doesn't help too much for site visibility.
Some domains that are still available:
charitymusic.co.uk
charitysounds.[com|net|org]
charitybands.[net|org]
musiccharity.net
charityandmusic.[com|net|org]
musicforcharity.net
And so on..
Some domains that are still available:
charitymusic.co.uk
charitysounds.[com|net|org]
charitybands.[net|org]
musiccharity.net
charityandmusic.[com|net|org]
musicforcharity.net
And so on..
Oh, and this is the hosting place:
[URL]http://www.streamline.net/uu.php[/URL]
Very willing to put up that amount of money if I think the idea will take off.
[URL]http://www.streamline.net/uu.php[/URL]
Very willing to put up that amount of money if I think the idea will take off.
Right, I'm still thinking about this, and I'm probably definitely going to do it. Come up with a few designs I like, very simple, very easy to use (and manage).
But now I need a name.
If anyone can think of a decent name, bearing in mind that it has to be relevant to the cause, I'd be eternally grateful. "GiveAShit.com" has gone already, but I'm not sure if I want it gimmicky, although I'll consider any suggestions. Ready, set, go!
But now I need a name.
If anyone can think of a decent name, bearing in mind that it has to be relevant to the cause, I'd be eternally grateful. "GiveAShit.com" has gone already, but I'm not sure if I want it gimmicky, although I'll consider any suggestions. Ready, set, go!
Garin wrote:
> Mostly negative comments, sorry. :(
Don't be sorry, you're both being con(reads "de")structive, which is good.
> Mostly negative comments, sorry. :(
Don't be sorry, you're both being con(reads "de")structive, which is good.
Garin wrote:
> definitely needs some careful thought about how to minimize the effort on your part
I'm the crowned Prince of minimal effort, I can put it into anything.
I've thought about it, it's not just one of those ideas you have that you forget the morning after (like 'Ho-mail', my pimped up E-mail service) - I really think this could work. I know a place I can get unlimited, uncapped webspace for £45 per year, which I'm prepared to front.
It can only really be done with me setting up the charities - although a place for unsigned artists to upload and sell their music online would be quite a good idea too.
The only real issue is people uploading copyrighted music. I don't think I could manage a site like this if it got really big, and I don't intend to make any money from it so I couldn't hire staff (Christ, that's a responsibility I don't ever want!) Although a simple click of a button at the admin end could activate or deactivate an account, so it's not an impossibility.
> definitely needs some careful thought about how to minimize the effort on your part
I'm the crowned Prince of minimal effort, I can put it into anything.
I've thought about it, it's not just one of those ideas you have that you forget the morning after (like 'Ho-mail', my pimped up E-mail service) - I really think this could work. I know a place I can get unlimited, uncapped webspace for £45 per year, which I'm prepared to front.
It can only really be done with me setting up the charities - although a place for unsigned artists to upload and sell their music online would be quite a good idea too.
The only real issue is people uploading copyrighted music. I don't think I could manage a site like this if it got really big, and I don't intend to make any money from it so I couldn't hire staff (Christ, that's a responsibility I don't ever want!) Although a simple click of a button at the admin end could activate or deactivate an account, so it's not an impossibility.
monkey_man wrote:
> *sigh*
>
> It's actually very simple. You, an artist or band, make an account.
> Upload your own music. People download it and/or donate. I'm not
> doing it for the competition, it's just a happy little coincidence
> that I acquired the skills to make this sort of thing right after I
> actually had the idea (I did forget it at first, then it came back
> and I was like "yeah, I can do that now"). So why not?
Lets say you manage to make it moderately successful, how are you going to pay for bandwidth? Or more to the point, do you have somebody willing to provide unlimited bandwidth? If not, are you going to take it out the donations?
I really think it would be wise to do as you thought and contact charities you want to allow donations to and ask them what your legal obligations are, do they have objections etc.. Some charities get quite upset if people collect money on their behalf if they aren't authorized to do so. Also if you cant make it so that payments go directly to charity (ie you dont handle any money) you have to be able to prove you are doing what you say you are, which basically means you'll have to keep records of money received, payments made, deductions you've made for costs and so on. If your site isn't that successful, have to ask yourself if its really worth the effort for the sake of donating eg 2-3 pounds a month to charity.
In an essentially open system, ie anybody can register and upload songs. I think you'll find it difficult not to get labelled a harbour for illegal sharing of music, in which case you'll get shutdown sooner or later. Allowing people to report songs doesn't free you of your legal obligations in that respect. I suspect the only way you'd get away with it is if hosting songs was by application only so you have a chance to vet the songs personally. Essentially you could offer a showcase of bands, theres 1 or 2 songs freely available and if people want to listen to the rest then they are asked to make a donation to charity.
Mostly negative comments, sorry. :(
I think its a good idea though but definitely needs some careful thought about how to minimize the effort on your part to maintain it but at the same time remain legal and fulfil all your obligations.
> *sigh*
>
> It's actually very simple. You, an artist or band, make an account.
> Upload your own music. People download it and/or donate. I'm not
> doing it for the competition, it's just a happy little coincidence
> that I acquired the skills to make this sort of thing right after I
> actually had the idea (I did forget it at first, then it came back
> and I was like "yeah, I can do that now"). So why not?
Lets say you manage to make it moderately successful, how are you going to pay for bandwidth? Or more to the point, do you have somebody willing to provide unlimited bandwidth? If not, are you going to take it out the donations?
I really think it would be wise to do as you thought and contact charities you want to allow donations to and ask them what your legal obligations are, do they have objections etc.. Some charities get quite upset if people collect money on their behalf if they aren't authorized to do so. Also if you cant make it so that payments go directly to charity (ie you dont handle any money) you have to be able to prove you are doing what you say you are, which basically means you'll have to keep records of money received, payments made, deductions you've made for costs and so on. If your site isn't that successful, have to ask yourself if its really worth the effort for the sake of donating eg 2-3 pounds a month to charity.
In an essentially open system, ie anybody can register and upload songs. I think you'll find it difficult not to get labelled a harbour for illegal sharing of music, in which case you'll get shutdown sooner or later. Allowing people to report songs doesn't free you of your legal obligations in that respect. I suspect the only way you'd get away with it is if hosting songs was by application only so you have a chance to vet the songs personally. Essentially you could offer a showcase of bands, theres 1 or 2 songs freely available and if people want to listen to the rest then they are asked to make a donation to charity.
Mostly negative comments, sorry. :(
I think its a good idea though but definitely needs some careful thought about how to minimize the effort on your part to maintain it but at the same time remain legal and fulfil all your obligations.
Sort of; Oxfam relies on OD2 to provide music content for their service, who on behalf of all its clients (like the Coca cola site) adds the new tracks into a central database for them to use. Oxfam and the like just provide the interface I would assume.
Your idea would mean a more dynamic site, as it would allow artists to upload tracks whenever they want. Not sure if it would work to be honest, as loads of amateur musicians already have their tracks free for download.
Your idea would mean a more dynamic site, as it would allow artists to upload tracks whenever they want. Not sure if it would work to be honest, as loads of amateur musicians already have their tracks free for download.
I thought the Oxfam thing was a similar idea. It's just a simple service, and I doubt it'll get used. If it makes any money for any charities, then I'll be happy with it.
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