What's out there to help me?

So I haven't yet had a response on my delve into the musical composition world from my school system. It's also their Spring Break, which means that I'll most likely hear again next week.

What I have discovered when researching is that there are apparently companies and websites that are aiming to assist us in not having to be stifled from sharing music etc. This site is working to do just that, and their purpose on the front of the page cites many examples of what I do not understand. By "not understand" I refer to some of the sites, and other things I have never actually heard of in my every day Internet use. I am not a fan of illegally downloading music, being a musician myself. While I love that music is out there and we can hear so many different things, I believe that the musician and the groups have the right to earn a living. Since it is SO hard to do just that (insert
poor musician jokes here!), I applauded when pay for music sites came out when I was in high school.

Pandora has been one of my FAVORITE new sites and you can see what it is here.

I love that I can listen to all sorts of music without having to buy it, but that the artists are still getting credit and paid for their music. Another educational site that I have found recently thanks to my school's library media specialist has been this site, FirstCom Music. It is super cool and has some very interesting possibilities for teaching and using music in the classroom.

While I was perusing EFF's site, I did come across this really cool link to another site: Teaching Copyright. It is a great site that is aimed to help and assist teachers on teaching copyrights to children amidst this crazy world.


What are your thoughts on sites like Pandora? What about when our students create music and material in our classrooms? My next quest is to see if there is a site out there that we can use for student's music where they can also get recognized, as in a School-type Pandora. Would there be a market for that? Hit the comment buttons and let me know!