Music. It’s a universal language. Twelve notes that can speak to most so many regardless of language, race, creed, or any other gap…maybe even species.
We sent music out into the stars, perhaps in the hope that whatever alien species hears it will find the same message that human beings often do. It transcends time, can change our mood in the blink of an eye, and can convey a story that we can’t find the words ourselves to tell. It’s one thing that our world has that’s as close to magic as we can get.
As we wade into 2022, in the year or so since I released DMCA-Free Rock: Volume One my songs have been streamed just over 100k times. Now, in the grand scheme of things, there are plenty of artists that see that in a day’s time.
But, me? I am amazed, and incredibly thankful…almost speechless because the right words escape me.
The music of kcwm is DMCA-free instrumental rock music inspired by the power-chord driven rock of the 90’s. Most of these songs are not written until I sit down to write them, often doing so while livestreaming on Twitch. I often start with constructing a drum track and write guitar with the drums as a foundation.
While lyrics and vocals speak to and connect with people in a very specific and powerful way, they can help one get lost in the moment and lose focus on the task at hand.
You might be wondering, what is DMCA-free music? You’ve likely heard that term at some point. DMCA stands for the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and has caused a good number of headaches for content creators on sites like Twitch and YouTube.
When a content creator uses a song they do not have the license to use (and have a Spotify, Amazon Music, or other streaming site account does not count), the artist, or label/organization that represents that artist, can send a DMCA notice to the site hosting the content.
This is generally done as a “copyright claim” that basically says, “Hey, this belongs to us and they don’t have permission to use it”, but they could issue the more serious “copyright strike” which says what a copyright claim does but also penalizes the creator.
- YouTube moves any monetization from the creator to the rights holder(s). In some situations, the video is taken down. You can appeal these decisions, but the appeal goes to the entity that initiated the claim or strike. As you can imagine, that just sets up a whole list of things that can go wrong. False claims are made all the time.
- Twitch doesn’t offer monetization on specific videos, and most content is purged. There were times where entire chunks of audio went missing. In other situations the entire VOD, or video on demand, was simply deleted.
- YouTube moves any monetization from the creator to the rights holder(s). In some situations, the video is taken down. You can appeal these decisions, but the appeal goes to the entity that initiated the claim or strike. As you can imagine, that just sets up a whole list of things that can go wrong. False claims are made all the time.
On YouTube, enough copyright strikes in a set amount of time gets your channel shut down. On Twitch, creators had accounts suspended, lost accounts, and it was a general mess.
A streamer by the name of Harris Heller, under the artist name Streambeats, released a number of lo-fi and other electronic-based DMCA-Free albums that offered streamers and content creators music to use in the bed of their videos.
Harris encouraged people to use his music and, as the rights holder, he controlled whether claims or strikes came into play. He deserves so much credit for what he did, has done, and continues to do for the streaming and content creation community.
While I used some of the Streambeats music, lo-fi and synth based electronic music aren’t my cup of tea.
When it came to the DMCA-free rock music that was out there…well, I wasn’t much of a fan of it either.
At the time, Streambeats had not announced their rock album (at least I don’t believe they did). Seeing what I felt was a gap, I took the steps to create music under KCWM…music that I’d want to listen to.
I figured I’d just write the music I normally write and leave vocals off of it. The song ideas came quickly and within the first six months of 2021, I released three DMCA-free rock albums.
The first two releases were supplemented with six songs from two different bands I was involved in. One of these bands was Cold the Winter. The green playlist you see on this site contains the 24 new songs written under KCWM.
When I wrote songs for the first three volumes, I began writing each song by putting together a drum track in Superior Drummer 3 instead of starting with a guitar part and fleshing out a song from there.
I wrote more songs in six months than I have in the past six years. For years I thought I’d love to write music for a living and I got a taste of what that would be like. It killed whatever momentum I had going. After eight months of working on music 3-4 hours, I was burned out.
I didn’t pickup a guitar for almost almost three months.
After that break, I went started playing music again. I’d write a song, record it on my iPhone, and left it. Building a song from the guitar up is more of a challenge and takes time. I was feeling the pull of music again.
Unfortunately, at the start of January 2022, I found myself in the ICU for seven days. Spending so much time in that hospital bed did a number on my back. It took until the end February 2022 before I was able to spend extended stretches sitting in a chair.
Just like before, I feeling the creative pull again. I have one song that’s written and just needs to be properly recorded, three more that have complete drums that just await tweaking, and six or seven more sitting on my phone waiting for their turn.
I’ve found my way back into some of the Twitch communities I’d been a part of before, communities that have been incredibly supportive of my music venture by shouting me out and/or using my music in their streams. If I weren’t so emotionally constipated, the very thought of just how generous those folks have been might cause me to get a little emotional.
It’s now March, I intend to start streaming the music writing process again. This time around, I will be adding new songs to Spotify as I release them and then collecting them as an official album release.
In a world of noise, be sound.