Date: November 14th 2012
Dear irishtune.info Newsletter subscribers,
Here's issue #3, finally. It has been two years since issue #2, mainly because last year a generous donor took care of fundraising needs for 2011. But this year irishtune.info is facing a $159 shortfall! Please do show your support.
In this issue:
The biggest accomplishment was the introduction of instantly playable audio snippets of each tune recording, on Nov. 11, 2011. This represented the culmination of years of scheming and preparatory work. The manual work of precisely locating the clips for each tune within each track was, however, only mostly done by then, and it continues to this day; so far you can hear the opening bars from about 13,000 of the 16,000 tune recordings in the database.
Once that work is closer to 100% completion, you will see the playable audio feature appear more thoroughly throughout irishtune.info.
Since Nov. 2010 (Newsletter #2), irishtune.info has expanded its coverage by:
You can browse exactly which albums and tunebooks were added to the database and when, by browsing our Facebook page (even if you do not have a Facebook account), at https://www.facebook.com/irishtune
Many of the added albums were either directly donated or funded by donors. Let me point out the detailed list of donors which I publish at:
http://www.irishtune.info/faq/support.html#donors
More and more people are using the personalized my.irishtune.info features. So far 760 people have created accounts, although only 209 have logged in this year. As you can see in “Top Session Tunes,” so far 304 people have entered at least some of their repertoire, and 25 individuals have entered repertoires of 100 or more tunes. This is giving us a better and better picture of global tune popularity.
A sample of where irishtune.info members are.
Go ahead and create yourself an account! It's very easy:
http://www.irishtune.info/my/register.php
Even if you do not use Facebook, you can follow updates, news, and user comments about irishtune.info on this public Web page:
https://www.facebook.com/irishtune
If you are a Facebook user, please "like" this page, an action which helps promote the visibility of irishtune.info and occasionally inserts our updates into your newsfeed.
The main reason for this Newsletter going dormant last year was the impact of a huge, anonymous donation of US$500, which meant there was no need last year for a fundraising drive. Thank you, o Anonymous!
But only 6 weeks remain before the fiscal end of 2012, and your support is definitely needed this time, to cover what currently stands as a $159 shortfall.
The major expense this year was to take advantage of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity generously offered to irishtune.info just last month by Paul Kinder, a concertina player in Indiana who decided to retire from the music and let irishtune.info purchase some of his CD collection at a very favorable price. I took a risk and carefully selected 38 CDs that filled some musicologically significant gaps for irishtune.info. Now we need to pay for those …
How to donate:
http://www.irishtune.info/faq/support.html
Here are some more reasons why irishtune.info needs your donations:
Please consider becoming a “Patron” for $5 / month, or a “Supporter” for $2 / month, or even just a “Fan” for $6 per year, or showing your support in some other way:
http://www.irishtune.info/faq/support.html
Finally, as you go holiday shopping in the next month, please remember that a very easy way to support irishtune.info is to use the "Go Shopping" links (to Amazon, CD Baby, etc.) from the above page as you do your holiday shopping this year ... At no cost to you, while you send a cut of those corporate profits towards a good cause ...
Thank you and best wishes,
Alan Ng
