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The Devil's in the rights waivers

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Chris Vallance | 00:29 UK time, Thursday, 31 August 2006

Podcasting taboo music in PersianIf the devil has the best tunes Behzad probably has a Persian podcast rights waiver from him. Behzad Bolour produces a : it's a youth programme and it contains music. And like most podcasters Behzad struggles with music licensing, but the difficulty he faces isn't the presence of music podcasting rules in Iran, but their absence.

Because Behzad's podcast originates in the UK he's subject to the available licenses offered by organisations like the Performing Rights Society. Licenses that for many podcasters are prohibitively expensive

Behzad's solution has been to ask the artists featured on his cast to waive their rights. (something many indie music podcasters already do) But obtaining these premissions to podcast hasn't been so easy. He's spent his own money travelling to LA and Tajikistan in persuit of the necessary waivers. And Behzad says the situation is made more difficult because Iran lacks a copyright culture for music. As a result, his requests are often greeted with suspicion by artists who wonder what he's asking for and why.

The lax rules also undermine the attractiveness of music podcasting. Many young Iranians take the music tracks they want straight from the web without paying. This makes it hard from them to see the point of a podcast with some music, but Behzad says, because of their political and religious leaders penchant for long-winded speeches, they aren't big fans of talk only podcasts either.

It leaves Behzad with a bit of a dilemma - what to put in the podcast? Chatting over coffee in Soho we talked about the options. Perhaps inspired by the surroundings Behzad mentioned that within Iran it is certainly not the case that "the devil has all the best tunes". Only Angels make pop-music in Iran Behzad told me. Predictably this has resulted in the growth of an underground scene, with musicians exploring taboo genres and subjects (like sex and politics) often frowned upon by the authorities.
Which brings us back to the unique content he can offer in his cast. In the film School of Rock Jack Black says rock music is all about "sticking it to the man" clearly something it's not so easy to do within Iranian society. But home-grown music in all its forms is something Behzad can freely explore within his podcast and radio programmes. He's already featuring among other things, such un-angelic offerings as an Iranian Death Metal band.

The interveiw with Behzad will run on next weeks pods and blogs

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