Monday, February 4, 2013

Canovals 2013 the plans



I promised to put this year's plans down in writing. It looks like if I wait much longer that it will be next year already and we cannot have that, can we? So here goes:
 
Item one: I plan to write more right here all year long. 
 
Item two: The Canovals YouTube channel: releases are planned for every Wednesday and Friday all year long.
 
Wednesday releases will have a wide variety - old Soundies (whose copyright presumably is lost - but Harry Fox and others are claiming some of them and putting their advertising on them, sigh); Czech, Slovak, and Slovenian music from several sources as well as some selected Serbian Music; and of course, as long as we can get by with it - selections from our dear Prisma, from our historic friend Homero Prado, and Sunny Ozuna from our own backyard. There could be a half dozen or so special Croatian songs show up on Wednesday and there may be a surprise or two along the way as well.
 
Friday: Croatian music on croatian language. Period. In all this I'm planning to have one Viktorija Kulisic song per month if I can locate enough songs to do that. I'm thinking that I ought to have a few more Drazen Zecic and some heavy hitters in the line up too.
 
The problem with that last notion is copyright. GMbh and CroRec are tightening the strings on their copyrights a little from the looks of things out on Google. It's their music, they have the right to do that. Blessedly both of them have been friendly so far in letting us fans have the music on YouTube - as long as they can fetch a little money from advertising and direct listeners to where they can purchase the music. I'm for that 100%. They have to make money and so does YouTube or we wouldn't have any music or any place to show our handiwork when we make videos for the music. It's all good. Still I tremble each time I see an old respected channel bite the dust, and it happens. 
 
See, I'm in this for more than just the social aspect, although that's good and I like my friends and fans a lot. My goal is to draw people to listen to Croatian Music. I believe we have something special and I want to help broaden the base of people who are familiar with our culture and our music - and, indirectly broaden the base of people who might buy some of it for themselves. I own quite a few CDs. Nearly every CD I own is from a singer or a group which I first heard on YouTube. My wallet simply doesn't have enough loose change in it to buy music I might not like. Back in the '60s, in Houston for example, when you went into a record shop, you could take a record into a booth and play it to make sure it was what you wanted to own. YouTube serves somewhat the same function in the twentyfirst century.

 
Just as important is the cultural aspect. There are probably as many of us Croats in North America as there are in Croatia. Until just a very few years ago we depended on the occaisional record which someone might bring with them from Home and we'd play that record until it flat wore out as smooth as an old Montgomery Ward used slick. If anyone needs to know what that used to be, Let me know and I'll tell you some other time. Suffice it to say - we wore the records from Home completely out. With YouTube and the internet we have a wonderful musical means to keep our culture and our ways alive and flourishing. 
 
Item 3: Canovals2 - I've run out of steam, so the plans for Canovals2 will come next time.
 
 
do sljedeći put, blagoslov - until next time, blessings,


Canovals a.k.a. Slavonac

4 Veljača  2013

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