POD safe!

I’ve mentioned it before in my old blog, but given the recent demise of AllofMp3.com, the biggest violator of music copyright since Napster, I figure it’s worth a repeat appearance.
While I love FreePlayMusic.com, the name is horribly deceiving. The audio there is not Podsafe, and for most purposes they actually charge a pretty fair amount (that’s relative to educators, not Hollywood types). You really have to scour their ratecard to understand what fees are actually involved.
In direct contrast to this, GarageBand.com is extremely podcast friendly, and has a very easy system for determining whether music is ‘podsafe’ or not. If you can download it, you can podcast it. Technically, if the music isn’t covered by Creative Commons, then you only have permission to republish it through GCast.com (their sister site), but most bands that I’ve found use CC. You can read the details here if you like. However you do it, it’s common courtesy to let bands know you’re using their music. More often than not, they really appreciate hearing that schools are using their music!
Personally, I’ve found it to be a fantastic source of podsafe music, as well as music to fill up your iPod! And not only that, it’s also highly EduSafe. I’ve never come across anything objectionable during my time spent surfing around through the site.
Oh yeah, and if you find any choice funk tracks, let me know