TRAVERSE CITY — The concept of regional music streaming services catering to local and regional acts has spread to Traverse City.
The Traverse Area District Library plans to unfurl its “TADL Waves” streaming service later this summer, focused on music by northern Michigan artists.
The district library will accept submissions online until July 8, with a panel of jurors choosing up to 20 of them for what it calls “the first wave” of acts featured on the targeted streaming platform.
Artists can submit their tracks online at waves.tadl.org/submit after asserting that they own or control all rights to the music and that they’ll agree to license the songs with TADL.
Josh Denby, TADL’s head of Sight and Sound for the Woodmere Branch, said the streaming service idea was sparked in part by the library’s current collection of more than 500 CDs by 200-plus local artists.
However, the “changing habits” of patrons means they’re now mostly streaming music.
So, TADL Waves was spawned after Denby caught wind of the national Rabble MUSICat service that helps connect listeners to regional artists.
“A lot of (listeners) have moved away from physical media,” Denby noted. “There are great services for getting electronic copies of books, audio books, movies and television to our patrons, but I want to help people find local music in the sea of content choices.”
The aim of TADL Waves is to showcase “a wide variety of genres” created by artists from the greater Grand Traverse County and Northwest Michigan region because library patrons embrace “an eclectic mix” of musical styles, he said.
“We ask artists to tell us about themselves and their connection to our music community when they submit,” said Denby, who described the Traverse City area music scene as “vibrant” with “tons of shows available for the community.”
Artists have until July 8 to submit songs, with the first lineup of selected tracks announced on July 22 during TADL’s Summer Reading Club “Finale Party.”
Those artists selected for the platform will receive an honorarium for sharing their music through TADL Waves
The service will go live in late July or early August, with the library also hosting a special listening party. Details will be posted at tadl.org/events.
The TADL Waves platform follows in the footsteps of the Kent District Library — based in Grand Rapids — which launched its “KDL Vibes” streaming service in 2021. It now features 100 albums by 96 West Michigan artists, with hopes of adding another 30 in the current submission period which runs through Aug. 31.
The Kent District Library also will host its second “Vibes Fest” at its Cascade Township Branch Library in August to celebrate the collection, featuring performances by more than a dozen regional acts.
Check out the KDL Vibes streaming platform online at vibes.kdl.org.