Author Archives: Orion

I play, record, write, and produce music. You can listen to my offerings on iTunes or Amazon.

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.

Harbor Chapel Memory Verse – Music Project

Yeah, I started another music project. Once again, this doesn’t fit in with any of my other artists, so it had to be its own thing.

My community church, Harbor Chapel has a monthly memory verse. It’s sponsored by a few charitable givers within the church so that whoever is selected (after volunteering) to recite the memory verse (from memory) correctly can win a prize. I wanted to aid people in their memorization process by putting the Bible verses to music. So I started the Harbor Chapel Memory Verse music project.

The first memory verse put to music is for October 2019. It’s Jeremiah 29:11. I hope you like the song and it helps you memorize the bible verse. Take care!

Links

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2EpwEli8p9RFXadFE3Eg1p?si=ak9qzJ6CRg6E8hQHXj5QzQ

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdBpxogGJknsFseJtgS0Y1A

 

 

Beats are Better – Like a Gym for Musicians

Musicians, including guitarists like me, are told from their first month of learning their first instrument, to practice with a metronome. A metronome is time keeping utility that, instead of measuring seconds or minutes or hours, measures Beats Per Minute. Learning to play along with a metronome is fine and well, except that it’s incredibly boring to play along to a constant clicking sound.

Beats are Better

So I came up with an idea, “make metronome training fun”, and the only way to do that was to get rid of the metronome.  Beats are Better is the result. Drum beats are easier to listen to for long stretches, provide musical context, sound more like songs (music), and are more fun to play along with. The full name of this project is Beats are Better (than a metronome) and that is the point. Musicians who want to work on rhythm training can select a track with a ballpark tempo and perform their drills over the track. It’s like having a personal, steady, tireless drummer at your disposal.

Musicians can perform rhythm drills, chord changes and progressions, or practice vamping in a given key. The tracks can be streamed or downloaded from any major music distribution service. More albums are planned.

Beats are Better on Spotify

If you are a musician who has been avoiding metronome training because it’s boring, give Beats are Better a try. If it helps you, share with a fellow musician. Practice can be hard, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be fun.

Hey Cortana, goodbye. I’ve moved from Windows Phone to iPhone

I have been a “Microsoft phone” supporter for nearly 10 years. From Windows Mobile, to Windows Phone 7 in 2010. To the betrayal that was Windows Phone 8, forcing all Windows 7 users to upgrade to new hardware (and the new OS). All the way through Windows 10 mobile and to it’s ultimate discontinuation, I was faithful and believed in the movement. Loyal to the end, and beyond, I have now chosen my next mobile platform, and I’ve sided with Apple. Continue reading →

Announcing – Orion Grooves – My Instrumental, Smooth-Jazz side project

I’m pleased to announce the Orion Grooves project.

Orion Grooves is a collection of instrumental smooth jazz, with guitar as the lead instrument. This project is a growth opportunity for me, and I’m using it to hone in on some new areas of study on the guitar. I plan to release an EP in the coming months. For now, you can hear the first single on your music platform of choice.