Pleasantly surprised: British indie pop celebrities read their email
Okay, maybe "celebrity" is too strong of a word. I suppose "internet-famous" does not actually equate to "famous". But anyway, I emailed MJ Hibbett of the indie band The Validators this morning, to ask permission to use his lyrics to the song Hey Hey 16K, for a node (natch).
Despite the big push lately, this was actually the first time I'd ever made a copyright request, and I was practically bowled over when I received a reply not only the same day, but only a couple of hours later! And Mark loved the idea! Hooray! I mean, it's almost enough to cement in one's mind the idea that musicians are nice people, by and large, as opposed to copyright-grubbing whores. Huh, whudathunkit.
Give it a shot, folks! It's not that hard. Here, I'll post up a transcript of our emails, just to show yah...
From: RoguePoet (mwkelley@att.net)
Date: Friday, June 18, 2004 11:08 AM
To: MJ Hibbett (mjhibbett@hotmail.com)
Subject: Copyright permission request for Hey Hey 16K lyrics
Mr. Hibbert, ((sic. yes, I actually spelled the man's name wrong. oops.))
I'm putting together a writeup about your wonderful song "Hey Hey 16K" for the website Everything2.com, and if possible I would like your permission to post the full lyrics to the song alongside the article. (In case you haven't heard of it, Everything2 is a collaborative online database devoted to interesting "People, Places, Things and Ideas", similar to Wikipedia or the BBC's H2G2.)
Everything2 is a non-commercial website, and your lyrics would be reproduced only once. Full credit would be given to you and your band, naturally, and of course I won't post anything until I hear back from you either way.
Thanks for creating such enjoyable music,
-- Mike Kelley
Michigan, USA
( mwkelley@att.net )
From: Mark Hibbett (mwkelley@att.net)
Date: Friday, June 18, 2004 2:21 PM
To: Mike Kelley (mwkelley@att.net)
Subject: RE: Copyright permission request for Hey Hey 16K lyrics
Hi Mike - that sounds lovely, thanks very much indeed! The copyright is owned by my publisher, Wipe Out Music, so if you could just put that at the bottom or something please that'd keep him happy... otherwise, thanks very much, that sounds fab!
Cheers,
Mark
Woo! Rock on.