High School Usa Cheer/varsity Music Announcement

[OldskoolKYcheercoach]

Rebel Takes On Goliath | Page 5 | Fierce Board - The Voice Of Cheer

Interesting...

I somehow doubt Varsity is influencing the music industry and copyright laws. This copyright war is not new. Metallica vs. Napster anyone?

I'm going to show my true inner nerd here and say, I'm 100% in agreement with all of this. I never stole music from Napster or any of the other file-sharing sites even when they were popular. I never made copies of cassettes (showing my age...for all you kiddos out there, that's a piece of hard plastic with some more magnetic ribbon inside of it that makes noise) or CD's for my friends. I've always felt that the people who were talented (I use that term loosely in today's world) enough to make popular music deserved to be paid for their work. I've felt for years that the idea of using cheer music should be a violation of copyright, BUT I was ignorant enough about the laws to think that it must be ok BECAUSE we did so much changing and rearranging to the songs. I had no idea that you not only needed a license to use the music, but also needed one re-mix it.

I've heard rumor that Taylor Swift is at the root cause of this change, but it's just rumor from hearsay.

The only reservations I have is going to be finding cover songs that my kids will like for our comp routine this year.

 

[celtics youth cheer coach]

I'm curious how this effects rec non-profit groups that can't afford to pay high amounts for music? Our budget is $100. I guarantee that the providers listed isn't going to offer 1:30 of music for that price. We normally use legitmix. Will we still be able to do that? We don't compete at varsity events.....

 

[OldskoolKYcheercoach]

I'm curious how this effects rec non-profit groups that can't afford to pay high amounts for music? Our budget is $100. I guarantee that the providers listed isn't going to offer 1:30 of music for that price. We normally use legitmix. Will we still be able to do that? We don't compete at varsity events.....

Check out cheermusic4u. his pre-mixed cuts are usually pretty reasonable, and he's a preferred provider.

 

[AScheer]

Our producer is on the list, so in that stance I'm not worried. Financially the price hasn't raised from previous seasons... yet. I am worried however that getting in with these producers is going to be so much harder. Patrick for example is already impossible to get in with if you're a school team that is outside of the schools in GA he's always worked with. Now that music options are limited, getting in with the top producers is going to become that much more impossible.

I do wonder though, are these producers having to give a kickback to varsity to be a preferred music provider or to get their name on this list?

 

[ScottyB]

I do wonder though, are these producers having to give a kickback to varsity to be a preferred music provider or to get their name on this list?

There is no fee or cost or money involved with the preferred provider list.

 

[coacha]

I'm curious how this effects rec non-profit groups that can't afford to pay high amounts for music? Our budget is $100. I guarantee that the providers listed isn't going to offer 1:30 of music for that price. We normally use legitmix. Will we still be able to do that? We don't compete at varsity events.....

Unleashthebeats.com is a provider, and you can get 1 track for $20 or 5 tracks for $85 and permission to mix them together. The down side to them is they are all covers. We have a tiny budget and I'm used to mixing my own music and having the freedom to tweak things as our routine tweaks over time, so that is the route we are going this year. (We also don't have the budget nor the clout to get in with a big name producer, our program is only in its second year of competing...) So, I've been listening to the music there to decide what we want to go with. Some of it is pretty bad, but most of it is decent.

As for all of the talk of this being some conspiracy of Varsity trying to now take over the music world, I can tell you that the music giants are really the ones pushing this mess and have been for several years. It's our own fault for basically ignoring copyright laws.

 

[OldskoolKYcheercoach]

Unleashthebeats.com is a provider, and you can get 1 track for $20 or 5 tracks for $85 and permission to mix them together. The down side to them is they are all covers. We have a tiny budget and I'm used to mixing my own music and having the freedom to tweak things as our routine tweaks over time, so that is the route we are going this year. (We also don't have the budget nor the clout to get in with a big name producer, our program is only in its second year of competing...) So, I've been listening to the music there to decide what we want to go with. Some of it is pretty bad, but most of it is decent.

As for all of the talk of this being some conspiracy of Varsity trying to now take over the music world, I can tell you that the music giants are really the ones pushing this mess and have been for several years. It's our own fault for basically ignoring copyright laws.

Makes me wonder if, thirty-five-ish years ago, someone had had the foresight to approach ASCAP, BMI, etc, and say, "we think this is going to be huge, do you want in on the ground floor?" would we even be having this discussion?

Let's be honest, this is coming from varsity because that's probably the main target of the industry. The size of their major competitions, the venue (WDW), the readily available videos online, and the television production, are all contributing to varsity being the primary target. Everyone else is collateral damage. I just wonder if this is a battle that the powers-that-be thought they would never have to face in the beginning,

ETA: especially considering the few videos I've seen of those first few competitions sounded like generic music anyway. So I wonder who put the first popular song in their mix and started the trend that has grown into the monster.

 

[coacha]

My biggest concern right now is how the haves versus the have-nots are going to impact the score sheet. We compete in the northBeast, so we already have to deal with being a no-name school going against powerhouse teams that have been competing at the national level for years. When you throw in our tiny music budget that is now going to be full of cover artists, I don't want to take a hit on the scoresheet. And yes, I know "music" isn't on the scoresheet. But overall effect is...

 

[OldskoolKYcheercoach]

My biggest concern right now is how the haves versus the have-nots are going to impact the score sheet. We compete in the northBeast, so we already have to deal with being a no-name school going against powerhouse teams that have been competing at the national level for years. When you throw in our tiny music budget that is now going to be full of cover artists, I don't want to take a hit on the scoresheet. And yes, I know "music" isn't on the scoresheet. But overall effect is...

I've judged competitions.

From that perspective, I think I can safely say that it's much more important to have choreography that works with your music well than to have something flashy in your music. By the time you've watched forty-seven teams do some kind of skill highlighted in the brief pause that naturally exists in the song "world stop"....you don't even care about music selection anymore. I'm much more likely to notice if your flyers hit their body positions the count after the sound effect, or if the basket flyer pops her toe-touch the count before the sound effect, or if your team shakes their money maker in their dance and then two 8-counts later, you use THAT song....than I am which cover song you chose.

 

[Alli]

Is all of this going to have the same effect on Canada? The link is USA cheer but I assume it would be the same here? Anyone know anything different

 

[AScheer]

I've judged competitions.

From that perspective, I think I can safely say that it's much more important to have choreography that works with your music well than to have something flashy in your music. By the time you've watched forty-seven teams do some kind of skill highlighted in the brief pause that naturally exists in the song "world stop"....you don't even care about music selection anymore. I'm much more likely to notice if your flyers hit their body positions the count after the sound effect, or if the basket flyer pops her toe-touch the count before the sound effect, or if your team shakes their money maker in their dance and then two 8-counts later, you use THAT song....than I am which cover song you chose.

This... To an extent!

It's subconscious. I watched a YouTube video once that was talking about audio in videos. They said if the audio is good, no one notices. If the audio is bad, everyone notices.

Judges and the crowd get so used to hearing noise that the music isn't necessarily noticed, AS LONG AS IT'S GOOD! Yes being on count and matching the routine is important, but if it's bad enough to make you cringe or hurt your ears every time they pull a body position or full down, then that can have just as bad an effect on the judges impression.

If it's a good mix, they may like it, not care for it, or not notice it. But subconsciously it will have a good impact on your routine.

If the mix, music or sound effects are bad, EVERYONE NOTICES! It will steal the focus of your routine and people won't talk about the skills but the sounds! Years ago I was at Cheersport. This little team from NC went before us had the worst music, so bad that I remember them for it today! I just wanted to hand their coach a business card of our producer. It didn't matter what skills they did, no one could get over the sounds making us cringe!

 

[OldskoolKYcheercoach]

This... To an extent!

It's subconscious. I watched a YouTube video once that was talking about audio in videos. They said if the audio is good, no one notices. If the audio is bad, everyone notices.

Judges and the crowd get so used to hearing noise that the music isn't necessarily noticed, AS LONG AS IT'S GOOD! Yes being on count and matching the routine is important, but if it's bad enough to make you cringe or hurt your ears every time they pull a body position or full down, then that can have just as bad an effect on the judges impression.

If it's a good mix, they may like it, not care for it, or not notice it. But subconsciously it will have a good impact on your routine.

If the mix, music or sound effects are bad, EVERYONE NOTICES! It will steal the focus of your routine and people won't talk about the skills but the sounds! Years ago I was at Cheersport. This little team from NC went before us had the worst music, so bad that I remember them for it today! I just wanted to hand their coach a business card of our producer. It didn't matter what skills they did, no one could get over the sounds making us cringe!

I will agree with that, but I think you're talking about the exceptions rather than the rule. The teams I've seen with that problem had such horribly awful music that it was not ignorable.

 

[coacha]

So, according to the Varsity email that went out this week with the updated slide show - you can't even use sound effects unless they are fully licensed. So the piles of sound effects that I've bought over the years are useless to me? We are going to mix our own using unleashthebeats - but now on top of the music, I have to find and repurchase every sound effect I want to use?????? Who the heck is going to sue us for using a rise, bell or explosion that I purchased years ago for the purpose of mixing into cheer music!!!!

Sorry, I'm grumpy today.

 

[ryanaarontroy]

So, according to the Varsity email that went out this week with the updated slide show - you can't even use sound effects unless they are fully licensed. So the piles of sound effects that I've bought over the years are useless to me? We are going to mix our own using unleashthebeats - but now on top of the music, I have to find and repurchase every sound effect I want to use?????? Who the heck is going to sue us for using a rise, bell or explosion that I purchased years ago for the purpose of mixing into cheer music!!!!

Sorry, I'm grumpy today.

Pardon the stars but this is honestly some bulls**t. Please someone tell me how we can get potentially sued for a sound effect.

Maybe I have to get a license to breathe at a competition too guys.

Oh wait my body isn't on the "preferred" list so scratch that.

 

[cheerisloving]

Silly question-is this rule still in place for states that don't go to Varsity events?

I'm not surprised about this though, Varsity camp mixes all uses covers. I just think it's a bit much especially because there are teams that will never make it on TV where the music will be broadcasted.