Tag Archives: silly songs

Mark Rober used my music without crediting me – I wrote a song about it

Update: The Mark Rober team has finally credited me for using my music in their videos.

On March 19, 2024, I received an email from one of Mark’s producers explaining that my music was somehow flagged as “cleared”, as in “cleared, or approved, for use in videos”. He apologized for the lack of credit given and wanted to make things right by retroactively crediting me in their videos and crediting me in any future usage of my song.

He was very polite and we had a great conversation about everything. Ultimately, we decided that they would link to my YouTube channel, where [massive irony incoming] the only longform video I have is the video where I call out Mark Rober for not crediting me in his videos.

Anyway, all of this made for a great story in my book. Thanks to Mark’s team for making things right, and thanks to all who encouraged and supported me along the way.

Original post begins below.

These days, I am mostly known for my silly songs on Instagram and TikTok channels. But I have written a lot of different styles of music over the years.

For a stretch, I was writing background music for videos and released some of them here for royalty-free usage. I have only asked for attribution, and I think people have respected that for the most part.

That is, until recently. Someone let me know that popular engineering YouTuber Mark Rober had used my song, Circus Minute, in one of his videos. I was very excited! To have him use my music – and credit me – might win me some followers, or even a gig writing music for someone’s project. Unfortunately, Mr. Rober did not credit me in his video. And he has used my song at least two times, and in both videos, no mention of me. Sad face. Oddly, he did credit other songwriters for the use of their songs in both videos. So it seems I fell through the cracks. Or he has some method to who he does and doesn’t give credit to.

I did reach out to Mark Rober, and at the time of writing (over 1 month later), I haven’t heard back from him. I’m sure he’s very busy and can’t read all of his mail, but how else is someone supposed to get in touch? Well, if you are a silly-song writer, you spend way too many hours recording music and video to tell Mr. Rober about his glaring omission. So that’s what I did.

Feel free to tag Mark Rober and link him to my video, if you like. I’m still on the lookout for that attribution, and maybe an apology.

A video of me performing a song I wrote about how Mark Rober used my music without crediting me.

I Dropped My Phone – new song

A couple of months ago, I dropped my phone. It was a Microsoft Lumia 950XL with a white case. When it hit the ground, it landed flat on the screen and busted it up real good. I didn’t tell many people about it. Maybe that was partly due to shame, but I didn’t figure most people would care.

What I did figure though, was that many people share my experience. Most people have at least dropped their phones if not broken them at one point or another.

As part of my “recovery process”, I decided to write a song about my experience. I mixed in a couple of other people’s stories to tell the tale of an individual with terrible misfortune, and probably a hint of carelessness. That song is called I Dropped My Phone.

On top of writing the song. I also directed and starred in a music video for it. And on top of that, I made a new website to promote the song and video. Hopefully it gets some generic traffic from people just typing in the phrase “I dropped my phone”. I am hoping that it is a common phrase, and I’m going to try to corner the market on that one. I’ll have a song and a website URL and a music video all with that phrase. So bring on the visits from the phone droppers (like me).

The website also cautions people to pick up a screen protector and a case for your phone. Preventative measures should be taken so that others don’t face the anguish that I did after losing my phone to a fall.

Where to buy the single I Dropped My Phone

It’s available all of the usual places:

I Dropped My Phone on Google Play

I Dropped My Phone on Spotify

I Dropped My Phone on iTunes

Royalty-Free “Benny Hill Theme” Style Alternative (Circus Minute)

I had been looking for a song in the style of the Benny Hill Theme (Yakety Sax). You know, that funny chase music. I wanted something with a funny vibe that would add humor to a video that had been sped up to look hectic and silly. Yeah, basically I wanted the Benny Hill Theme for the same reason that everybody else wants it. Continue reading →

New Song – “Do Your Homework”

I wrote a song for my 12 year old to encourage him to do his homework.  I outline a few simple reasons why it would be in his best interest and I do it all to music.  I think many other parents can probably relate to my perspective, so I share this for them, as well as anybody else who knows my son.

Parents, feel free to share this with your child as it will hopefully motivate them.  Honestly, I don’t know how to reach these little guys.  But if this doesn’t work, I can at least check “write a song about it” off of my list of solutions.