As part of our new unCovers series, I’m excited to start recording Etcetera Kid audio versions of cover songs that you can suggest and help choose in chat. These recordings will be more produced “studio” versions as opposed to the raw, live music I improvise on the show.
Our chat community came up with 44 suggestions, which I whittled down to 6 options spanning over 140 years (playlist below). This week we’ll be voting in chat to decide on which of these will be the first unCover I record.
The patron with the most cumulative donations over the last 30 days on the final day of the vote will get to request 3 of the sounds (from existing sound library) and 1 of the instruments (any that I’ve played on stream except kazoo, slide digadadoo, or the bull’s horn) and I’ll use them in some form when recording the song.
unCover Finalists
- Abba – “SOS” (1975)
- requested by SniperBob76
- Halsey – “Colors” (2015)
- requested by N343C
- Led Zeppelin – “Immigrant Song” (1970)
- requested by theLostElf
- Nine Inch Nails – “Hurt” (1994)
- requested by ironstien001
- Grieg – “In the Hall of the Mountain King” (1876, from Peer Gynt, Op. 23)
- requested by Fibbis
- Gerry & The Pacemakers – “You’ll Never Walk Alone” (originally from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical Carousel, 1945. The Pacemakers recorded their version in 1963)
- requested by ynwa25052005
unCovers FAQ
- Suggestion Phase: Over 3-5 day period, you’ll be able to suggest songs in chat that you’d love to hear me record. (e.g. !uncover Lynyrd Skynyrd – Free Bird)
- Finalists Phase: I’ll go through the song suggestions and pick 5 finalists after confirming I can easily purchase the necessary mechanical license to legally record and release them (i.e. the publishing rights are 100% represented by the Harry Fox Agency).
- Voting Phase: If you have an active subscription to the channel (coming soon) you’ll be able to vote for one of the five song finalists. I’ll record an unCover version of whichever song receives the most votes.
- Request Phase: The patron with the most cumulative donations over the last 30 days on the final day of the vote will get to request 3 of the sounds (from existing sound library) and 1 of the instruments (that I’ve played on stream except kazoo, digadadoo, or the bull’s horn) that I’ll use in some form when recording the song.
- Release Phase: For the first unCover release, I’ll only be purchasing a license for a limited number of audio-streaming-listens to the track. If there’s enough interest, I may also purchase a license that will allow me to offer the track as a permanent download, perhaps available to subscribers and/or for individual purchase.
I’ll probably post a longer answer at some point, but in short I prefer the term unCovers since it reflects the spirit with which I approach a cover: my goal is to uncover what is possible with a song, not to cover what already has been done. Or in other words, I try to approach a cover as if it were an original.
Sadly there is no practical legal way to perform cover songs live on Twitch. And since my regular show does not depend on covers, it isn’t worth the legal risk to perform a cover every once in awhile if it could potentially jeopardize my entire show. I’ve talked about this on stream before and will have a more detailed explanation in my upcoming FAQ… I really hope that Twitch will eventually be able to work out an agreement with music publishers so that streamers can play covers without being at legal risk of DMCA takedowns or lawsuits.