User Submissions

We love collaborating on songs and projects. It’s what the net is for. Anything goes: song ideas, lyrics, album art, recording and sending in handclaps, vocals, guitar licks, percussion, making videos, remixes, etc. Everything is game.

We’ve collaborated with musicians, non-musicians, podcasters, theater directors, TV and filmmakers, writers, friends, and fans. So, jump in and collaborate with us as well.

Here’s How To Participate

1. Join the site so you can create with us. This allows you to post in the forums.
2. Join the Mailing List.
3. Subscribe to the Works-In-Progress Podcast to hear mixes and recordings of songs as we build them.
4. Subscribe to the WebCam Feed to see us at the recording studios. (Subscribe to the Feed)
5. Follow us on Twitter.
6. Subscribe to TheSongOfTheDay.com Podcast to hear the final versions of the songs we create.

Our Philosophy & Guidelines

Of course, we can’t promise we’ll develop your specific submission, but we’ll do our best. From our experience writing 365 songs for our TheSongOfTheDay.com podcast, we’ve learned while some ideas don’t get worked on, they often generate other ideas that do. We didn’t realize it at first, but it’s been pointed out that we write songs under the Second City improv model (yep, the sketch comedy school that basically started Saturday Night Live). That is, we generate as many ideas as possible (improv) and then work on the ones that show the most promise (develop the sketch).

As a result, all submissions have to be original. We can’t work on stuff that’s based on someone else’s copyright (i.e. we can’t just record the song Freebird by Lynyrd Skynyrd and put new lyrics to it). Also, we like working on stuff that’s never really been done before.

All our music is released under a Creative Commons license. And yes, while we do sell albums and downloads that may incorporate user submissions, any of that money just goes to keeping the band going. For example, the websites running (bandwidth, fees), the purchase of backup hard drives (we backup everything multiple times), publicity, etc. So, for uncomfortable legal reasons, by joining and participating, you agree that anything you submit can be used by us freely and as we see fit. Basically, it becomes the property of Beatnik Turtle and may be used in any future works as well. This is true even if we eventually make money off of something that incorporates your submission (i.e. handclaps you send in, song title, lyric suggestions, etc.). You of course will be credited for your work and thanked profusely where we’re able to do so (i.e. this website!). Also, keep in mind, you can always use what you submitted for yourself and your own projects as well. These are the only type of guidelines we see that protects both us and you in this crazy, mixed up world we call the Internet where copyright law is just a mess and where we both want to work together to create something cool.

So, if you’re up for it, join us! After all, we got music to create…