Street roots
Feb. 14, 2014
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Don’t just listen to music — UseMusic
• Number of chicken wings sold by
Fire on the Mountain on Super Bowl
Sunday: 25,653
Portland musician’s
innovative website
UseMusic.org joins
artists with nonprofits
for charity
BY DEVAN SCHWARTZ
• Percent drop in Seattle-area 911
calls during the Super Bowl: 31
• Percent rise in Seattle-area 911
calls after the Super Bowl: 75
• Dollars per container the Port of
Portland will pay Hanjin Shipping to
keep calling on Portland: 20
• Days after a gun-buyer’s
background check before the State
Police purge the information: 10
• Number of traffic crashes the
Portland Police Bureau responded
too during the snowstorm: 302
• Number of “hazard” calls the
Portland Police Bureau responded to:
196
• Percentage that emergency calls
to Fire and Rescue increased during
the snowstorm: 50
S STAFF W R ITER
zra Holbrook has already made a
name for himself in Portland. He is a
a founding member of the
Decemberists and has collaborated with
numerous Northwest artists. He’s currently
planning a second record with his current
band, The My Oh Mys.
Holbrook, with years of experience
playing fundraisers for organizations, such
as tiie music nonprofit Ethos, had an idea
for a website: UseMusic.org. It was born out
of years of his own philanthropic work and a
desire to get more people involved to
maximize music’s role in fundraising.
It works like this: Musicians can upload
their songs, with proceeds going to the
nonprofit organization of their choosing.
Visitors can purchase the songs for sliding
scale prices; anything above a dollar is a tax
deductable donation. Aside from credit caïd
processing costs, 100 percent goes to the
E.H.: Once we got the basic concept
charity.
ironed out; it’s very simple: a website where
I had the chance to sit down with
a band can upload a song, choose a
Holbrook on a windy morning in Northeast
nonprofit that that song fundraises for, and
Portland.
the only thing taken out is the credit card
transaction (cost), and we hope to eliminate
D evan Schwartz: So how did UseMusic.
that over time as well.
org get its start and what is the mission o f the
It’s been two years since the initial idea.
■
website?
T h e first year w as brainstorm in g and th e
second year was building the Website.
• Number of miles of roadway the
Portland Transportation Bureau
cleared during the snowstorm: 518
• Number of calls the Portland
Water Bureau received for busted
pipes during the snowstorm: 904
• The number of shelter beds
available, in Multnomah County for
people experiencing homelessness:
1,350
• Number of Street Roots issues '
published in 2013:26
• Number of Street Roots covers
featuring a female in 2013:7
• Number of Street Roots covers
featuring a male in 2013:7
• Street newspapers worldwide: 122
• Street newspapers in North
America: 39
• Number of street newspaper
vendors worldwide: 14,000
• Number of Street Roots vendors in
2013:460
• Average number of children
conceived in the U.S. on Valentine’s
Day: 11,000
• Average distance roses travel from
production to sale: 5,000 miles
Sources: Street R oots; International
Network o f Street Papers; K G W ;
AccuWeather.com; G a llu p ; F ire on the
M o u n ta in ; C ity o f P ortland; Statistic
B r a in ; M S N B C
E zra H olbrook: The idea has been
brewing for a few years and it came out of
two converging things: I’ve played music in
Portland for 20 years and done many
fundraising concerts for various nonprofits
over the years, and I love doing them.
Musicians, in general, feel indebted to the
community they play in and it’s a good way
to give back.
And though I love doing fundraising
concerts, I’ve also found that for the amount
of time and energy that gets put in not only
by the musicians but the nonprofits, and the
pioney upfront for promotion and renting a
venue, it’s like the amount of man-hours ;
doesn’t seem to equal the amouht of profit
that you help raise. Sofor a long time I’ve
been feeling like there’s got to bç a more
economical way to accomplish the same
thing.
For a number of yéars I’ve thought about
some kind of website that sold music, but I
always got to a point where mechanically it
didn’t work. Either my idea didn’t work ori
we hit some kind of stumbling block.
Over the last couple years, seeing
Kickstarter and Indiegogo, these
crowdsourcing or fundraising platforms, I
got kind of reinvigorated. Mainly I was just
surprised by how enthusiastic people were
to get involved with stuff like that. The
public seemed to really get behind this idea
of financially backing tilings - whether they
were technological ideas or music or
whatever. I was taken aback by th a t I
wouldn’t have thought the public would be
so interested in backing projects like this. I
guess I’d accidentally become cynical or
something.
It was also watching the success of
friends funding their records and their short
films - that’s when I got the idea to kind of
combine those two things and use music.
It’s still been two years of trial and error.
The public launch was Dec. 21, 2013.
D .S .: E xplain how UseMusic.org worked
with Bunker, the local web development
company?
Once the actual build started, we tried to
break it a couple times, which we did. The
Bunker guys warned us this was coining ...
but when people start using it, you find out
all sorts of things you never even would
have thought of. The guys at Bunker have
been doing this out of the goodness of their
hearts.
. The board is made up of me and four
other guys:
Matt Garboden isaCPA (certified public
accountant) and a good friend. He was
involved in The initial brainstorming. Matt
has been very good about keeping me on
task.
Nate Merrill helped organize the Cover
Your Hearts fundraising events for the
musical nonprofit, Ethos. His day job is
running Bunker. We took him out, bought
him a couple drinks, pitched the idea, and
he was interested in not being a consultant
but a board member. Drew Dunn and M art
Wyner also joined from Bunker — ahd we
knew it was the right team.
It’s pretty much my job just to annoy the
other dudes and I think I do a pretty good
job of that,
PHOTO COURTESY OF EZRA HOLBROOK
checks.
You just put in your contact information
and upload a photo.
If anybody has any questions, there’s a
contact part of the website that emails each
of the members of the team, usemusic.org/
contact-us.
-D.S.: How are you marketing or trying to 9,
g ^ th e wo^d m^aabowtpfyeMusie^org?
E.H.: We’re doing a Facebook and Twitter
campaign.
And we’re actually starting a campaign
with XO Publicity (a Portland-based publicity
firm) to do a nationwide press campaign —
because we realize there are thousands Of
nonprofits just in.Portiand and Seattle.
Ideally, through a press campaign,
nonprofits nationwide will be registering
what we’re doing. So we’re really hoping
that we can start getting some attention on
a bigger scale.
Initially, I was just thinking from the
standpoint of a musician with songs on my
hard drive. This is even more of a win-win
than I initially thought of — thé bands are
already gettinggood heartfelt promotion
from an audience they might hot have
otherwise gotten.
D. S.: With a resume as long as yours,
readers might like to know about your current
music projects - whether that’s in performance
or in the recording studio.
D. S . : For m usicians and charities who are
interested, what’s the best way for them to get
involved?
E. H.: Right now I play full-time in a
couple of bands, I have this band, The My
Oh Mys, which is kind of my rock band
where I’m one of the songwriters. We’re
getting ready to make a second record — *
hopefully in the next few months.
I’m also playing drums with Redray
Frazier, who’s an amazing sort of soul singer
here in town. Ànd we’re also hoping to
record in the next couple months.
Music’s a lot of fun and it keeps me out
of trouble for the most part.
I do Some playing with other folks. I’m
playing in Jeremy Wilson’s band for his CD
release, which is coming up in March.
As a drummer, your job is pretty much
never to screw up, which I can’t say I’ve
ever actually accomplished, but I try.
E. H.: The process is about two minutes
to register if you’re a nonprofit or a band.
We just need a contact and a place to send
Casey N e ill & The Norway R ats have
included a song to support Street Roots
usem usic. org/charities/3496.
D. S.:
W W about licensing?
'
E. H.: There’s no exclusivity, no
publishing or licensing. The band just has to
certify that they own the rights to the song.
Bands still have 100 percent ownership,
they can take it down at any time.
When possible, we’re encouraging people
to use stuff that is exclusive to them. We’re
hoping this becomes a little music boutique,
not a music label, but a music vendor -<
where most of the music you can only get
there.
Thank you Street Roots readers for all your support.