Can what works for music work for poetry as well? The people
behind poetryspeaks.com hope so. At their website you can search for poems by
topics, by poet, or by name of the poem. You’ll also find the biographies of
poets, be able to listen to (or watch, in the case of videos) 30 seconds of
any poetry products for sale on the site, and upload your own poetry
and get feedback on it.
Regarding this last function, the site says:
“Discover and be discovered! YourMic is your online stage
for poetry. Not-yet-published poets can upload their video and audio poetry
performances to YourMic. Register for a free account on PoetrySpeaks.com to
upload your poetry to the site. PoetrySpeaks.com is a community where you can
rate and review poetry performances. Join the community for the opportunity to
be critiqued or discovered by like-minded peers. Your poetry performances may
also be viewed by published poets who are on the PS•Voices and SpokenWord
sections of the site. Build your following on YourMic.”
There’s lots more on the site, both free and for a fee, and
the creators (Sourcebooks) say they’ve invested five years and a quarter of a
million dollars in it. Using iTunes as a model they’ve set it up so you can
download an individual poetry reading for 99 cents, or a video version for
$1.99. They’re hoping that the interactive elements will draw people to the
site, saying that “in essence, it’s a social network for poets and poetry
lovers.”
In my experience, poets have often been more interested in
writing poetry and selling it than in buying it. We’ll see whether this venture
can find enough of a balance to make a profit.
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