For many of us, poetry is much more accessible by ear than by eye. Hearing a poem removes intimidating parts and reveals other elements through sound that help us understand. Poetry would be fundamentally more appreciated if there were simply more opportunities to listen to it.

There are literally thousands of poetry recordings but almost none of them are available. Most of the great poets and poems of the last 60 years (as well as recordings of many classic poems) are stored in foundation archives or are burried in the out-of-print section of publishers. These organizations have no economically viable way to make this available, and so these amazing recordings get no exposure.

The immediate focus of this project is enable free access to audio recordings of great poetry via free Internet downloads. We will work with owners of these recordings to convert, index and make them available at no charge to them or to the listener. In cases where the content owner wants to maximize the exposure and distibution of the poems, we will help transfer fully copywrited recordings to a more flexible Creative Commons license to encourage subsequent non-commerical sharing among listeners.

These recordings are now able to be legally downloaded and shared at no cost. This allows for schools, students, libraries and other folks to get rich access to dramatic performances and spoken poetry.

Owners of these recordings get a much broader audience for their work. Authors and commercial publishers benefit through increased book sales and readers who are more deeply connected to their work. Non-commercial organizations who are rights owners (such as foundations) enjoy much greater distribution for their recordings and their name and cause extend their impact.

So, in summary, our first effort is making EXISTING audio recordings more accessible through free downloads, Creative Commons licensing, and the ensuing viral interesting that will come from it. There are so many great, underappreciated recordings out there that will now be heard and shared tens of thousands of times through this project.

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