blog @ stevendunston.com

This track is now 11 years old; hard to believe it. Kosovo (the song) is a Weird Al-type parody/tribute song based on the Beach Boys’ Kokomo. I wrote the lyrics and recorded this in 1999 as NATO was escalating its involvement in the Balkans.

In 1999, there were few internet outlets for this sort of thing. I did get some interest and some airplay out of some college radio stations, until a dispute with HFA knocked it off the air. I maintained that it was a clear case of Fair Use given that it was a parody, but they had better lawyers, and claimed that it was a rework of the original, which required publisher permission.

Anyway, here it is; click Continue Reading for the lyrics:

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Not sure how they found me, probably through Jamendo. But it’s very cool to have my song included with the open source competitive karaoke sensation that is Ultrastar Deluxe. For those who are unfamiliar with it, it’s a free program that tracks your voice as you sing along with songs, and then gives you a score based on how well you follow the original.

This is the perfect example of why I release my music under a Creative Commons license. They even have a link to my Jamendo album on their front page. Sweet.

I’m a huge fan of open software and free ideas. Ever since Windows XP launched, with its authorization schemes, I’ve been on a migration path away from Microsoft. And yet, while I use a Mac laptop and Linux on my desktop for web development, I still use Windows XP along with Cakewalk SONAR for all of my recording and sound design.

There are two primary reasons I have persisted in the proprietary world of Windows and Cakewalk. The first reason is that I have invested in a lot of Windows-only hardware. And the second reason is that open source audio tools have lagged behind their proprietary counterparts in terms of features and friendliness. But those reasons no longer suffice.

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