Why does this exist?
Muted and copyright claimed/struck videos
After having countless false copyright claims and muted videos on both YouTube and Twitch while also watching friends who are content creators suffer due to the heavy handed nature of music copyright, I decided to take it upon myself to figure this out. I am in a very rare position in that I own a professional recording studio and have years of experience in music creation. Coupled with the horrendous year that was 2020 and having all my gigs and recording work cancelled I now have a large amount of time to focus on music creation.
This project started out as a small idea, focus one week into composition and have 7 to 10 songs by the end that my friends and I could use in videos and live streams. I wanted to start out by creating a library of music that my friends and I could use without having to worry about potential copyright woes. But that idea bloomed into a project with no defined end date. I will be adding to this music library often, trying to compose at least one tune every week after the initial week for as long as I can.
Furthermore I want to make sure that everyone who uses this material is protected with the help of some wonderful people who work in the music business. We want to write up a “catch all” document for all compositions contained within this library. So that if there were any issues, proof of usage of the material could be provided.
I understand that having so much work available for free, for everyone, without any payment or even compositional credit is a career ender in terms of further work. But I hope that even with my small contribution I can help release the tight grasp that the licensing companies have on all compositions and that art can continue to be created and enjoyed by everyone. Art should be accessible to all regardless of personal wealth, position or power.
Who is this guy?
Uke Rocker till the day I die
My name is Stuart Crout but I have been known as Pockets since high school. The name just kind of stuck as my stage name. I have been a musician for as long as I can remember and have been doing it professionally for my entire adult life. I cut my teeth on the streets of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2006 before touring with a ukulele orchestra from 2011 all over the world. I have released a few EPs and my debut album came out in 2018 titled “Pockets and The Narwhal” an album about loss.
I also run a YouTube channel with 25k subscribers and almost 12 million views. The content there is mainly fun ukulele covers or changing the genre of a song with the occasional VLOG thown in for good measure. Along side this I run a Twitch Gaming channel where I play video games and make an idiot of myself for others to enjoy. Both platforms have taught me that communities make a creator. Without the people who watch and listen I would just be screaming into the void, and as small as my viewership and listener base is I am honoured to be making things for a living.
