Music Publishing Rights Collecting Society

Someone YouTube calls "Music Publishing Rights Collecting Society" has claimed copyright ownership of the music in my (512) Brewing Company Second Anniversary video. In theory, this work is in the public domain. I got it from Musopen, a repository of recordings of compositions in the public domain (both the compositions and recordings are in the public domain, since there is separate copyright for the performance and actual sheet music).

According to Musopen, the music I'm using is Holst's march from Suite No. 1 in E-flat. Holst has been dead for something like 75 years, and the work was published in 1909, which would put the composition is in the public domain. The recording I'm using was supposedly recorded by the United States Marine Band, so it shouldn't be copyright protected.

So, am I accidentally using a copyrighted recording (and Musopen made a mistake about the origins of the music)? Or am I dealing with a copyright troll?

Website Grader

Website Grader

At last year's Business of Software Conference, Dharmesh Shah suggested using his free Website Grader to get feedback on a website. The results are pretty interesting.

First of all, HopSafari scored in the top 12% of all websites they have graded. I can do better!

There was a minor glitch with Website grader. It couldn't find our blog or the RSS feeds for those blogs. I'm not sure if that is my fault or an issue with Website grader.

Some issues with Hop Safari:

• Missing image ALT text
• no del.icio.us bookmarks
• no twitter account associated with the domain
• no google buzz account
• no conversion form (a form for collecting email addresses)
• missing metadata

Things I've fixed so far:

• added metadata
• started another twitter account
• Changed the wording of the page title to have page descriptions before the page name (from Mr. Shah's BoS presentation)

Traffic

Over the weekend I welcomed 4 website visitors on Saturday, none on Sunday. Not great, but Hop Safari is only a few days old.

Events

I volunteered at (512) Brewing Company's second anniversary party this weekend. I took the opportunity to put a proof copy of Crafting Beer with (512) Brewing Company on their T-shirt table with some QR codes for Hop Safari and the book on Amazon. I suspect the event accounted for the 4 website visitors on Saturday.

I didn't work at the t-shirt table, but the few folks I talked to really liked the book. One person wanted to buy the proof copy on the spot, but I declined (until my delivery arrives, it is sadly the only copy I have). I wish the book delivery had arrived on time!

I was hoping that the event would generate tons of hits to HopSafari, but that didn't seem to be the case. Would I have sold some copies if I had some to sell? Probably. Having something for them to take home (a bookmark, bizcard, etc.) might have helped too.

I took some video for the event. Be sure to check it out on the Hop Safari beer blog.

Measuring Reach with Search

Part of my new plan for Moving Average is measuring and collecting feedback. One way to measure my progress and to discover feedback is to search google for the company name, book names, and so on.

Instead of going to search, you can have search delivered to you using Google Alerts. Google Alerts delivers an email summary of new search hits daily. I just configured alerts for "Moving Average Inc.", "Crafting Beer with (512) Brewing Company", and "Hop Safari".

Rebirth

Moving Average Inc. (the corporation that publishes this website, my books, etc.) has struggled for a few years now without great success. At our best we have sold a few books per month. At our worst, we have sold zero books per month.

Clearly a sustainable business this does not make. To fix this, I've come up with the following somewhat vague plan:

1. Buy out my co-founder. I want to change the focus of the business to topics more dear to my heart, and among other motivations, it didn't make sense to drag a co-founder into my personal passions.
2. Trim the fat. I have a few projects that just didn't do well, like Take Cover. Was lack of marketing part of the problem? Probably. I need to prune dead projects and focus on successes.
3. Focus on the intersection of my interests and my expertise. No more projects of purely intellectual interest. I want projects that I'm passionate about and that I have something to contribute to.
4. Put my money time where my mouth is. Spend time on my interests. Put my interests where my business is. I'm no longer going to work on a project just because it is a "good idea".
5. Start with small projects and expand based on demand. I can't afford multi-month projects that don't cover their own costs.
6. Measure and get feedback. In projects before Crafting Beer with (512), I was shy about getting lots of feedback before publication. I need to address this weakness. See item 5.
7. Document what I learn publicly. Since I no longer have a co-founder to discuss the business with, I'll document my thought process here.