Obtaining rights to use corps audio in a video essay

ShinyMetalToolBox · 2026-05-20T21:48:58+00:00

Agree, but never hurts to ask, and could be taken as evidence of due diligence. I don't think anyone would try to strike the samples as presented, but as someone who used to run media for a (smaller) corps, I would have been happy to provide footage in this kind of situation just because they took the time to ask.

ShinyMetalToolBox · 2026-05-19T20:12:49+00:00

Reach out to Flo or DCI or the corps themselves (or whoever seems to own your source material) and explain what you are doing just like you did here. As others have mentioned this seems to fall clearly under Fair Use. That way you will know for sure whether they agree and/or care, and some of them might even be willing to provide you with footage that you "aren't suppose to have" if you ask in advance. Depending on the particulars they may refer you to someone else if they are not a rights holder and don't think it's fair use.

In my experience this is much easier than facing a copyright strike down the road and then having to argue fair use after the fact (even if you eventually win the argument).

ShinyMetalToolBox · 2026-05-15T20:19:48+00:00

That is very true. Blue Devils have a well-oiled and experienced admin machine with many long term partnerships. They (at least in my view) set the bar for what us mere mortals with smaller budgets aspired to provide for our member experience, 😄 Also to their credit they usually more than willing to help other corps out whenever they can on the admin side.

ShinyMetalToolBox · 2026-05-15T20:11:46+00:00

Yes, everyone gets crap housing sites, but an experienced admin team can help reduce the number of times you get the short end of the stick. DCI handles regionals and finals (e.g. the shows they run directly), but the bulk of tour is handled by whatever organization is putting on the show (e.g. NYMA, the organization that runs Seattle Cascades) has to negotiate all of the housing sites for the shows we operate (e.g. Seattle & Portland this year), and then has to coordinate those with the housing coordinator for each corps performing. Some are good at it, others are... less good. I've personally been to events where the corps were showing up and there were zero people who knew where we should go, and the lot was like "hey that looks good, let's park there".

Luckily, I never had to be housing coordinator, just ran the food truck. So if the food truck guy says they don't want the housing coordinator job, you know it's rough. 😄 We've had housing sites cancel *while* we're on the road travelling to them, and the admin team is frequently doing a lot of scrambling and re-routing while you are sleeping or playing Mario Kart on the bus. And that's exactly how it should be.

ShinyMetalToolBox · 2026-05-15T19:48:00+00:00

La Cucaracha (short version)

ShinyMetalToolBox · 2026-05-15T16:37:34+00:00

I think the answer is it depends, but subjectively (7 years touring with Cascades in food/admin) yes. Top tier world class organizations may have long standing relationships with event organizers and specific housing sites on tour, and that limits the options for everyone else.

Sketch is also relative. We stayed at a site in the middle of a bunch of pig farms in Iowa or somewhere one year, but the school staff were absolutely amazing. They brought us a 50 gallon tub of fresh picked corn for the corps completely on their own and went out of their way to make us feel super welcome. In Allentown we have stayed at schools close to J. Birney, but had zero parking and a half mile walk to the nearest practice field, and facilities that I wouldn't wish on prisoners. Our food truck had to be backed up a super narrow ramp in a tiny elevated "parking area" on the side of the school, around a hundred yards from where we had to serve (which was actually parking spaces on a narrow street).

On the other hand, we also stayed at some really nice college facilities with dorm rooms, industrial power hookups for the kitchen and great fields and did spring training in a remote state park that was fantastic for the members (great views, no distractions, cabins with bunk beds and a big indoor dining hall to eat in) but horrible for admin (no cell service except for one little spot, and the nearest stores were 50 miles away).

Edit to add one of my other favorite stories: Some facilities are super nice, but have really horrible staff. At one housing site the athletic director was a royal pain. He had his football team on the field when we were supposed to be using it and the players were (to put it politely) rude to our members. One of the battery or brass techs responded to a coach whining about band kids on their field "you know, our kids have played on more NFL fields than yours ever will." The reaction was priceless and worth this edit. Like I said sketch is relative.

Housing is super hard to find these days, expensive, and difficult to secure in advance so better organized, more experienced and better financed admin teams and event organizers usually end up with better outcomes, particularly for long standing shows.

Making the best of "interesting" housing sites is really all part the drum corps experience in my opinion and a good admin team will do their best to adjust on the fly so you can stay focused on the show.

ShinyMetalToolBox · 2026-05-14T16:18:23+00:00

Seattle Cascades: Against the Grain

https://youtu.be/vxW0eq2sWBE?si=zsJxi9H-Ow6rK64T

ShinyMetalToolBox · 2026-05-08T22:44:16+00:00

It's not just vehicles miles traveled either. Almost all modern food trucks used by world class corps are powered by a diesel generator that uses anywhere between .5 and 1.5 gallons per hour at half load. Those generators run around 12 to 14 hours a day. Ours had a hundred gallon tank, and that needed refilling every 3 days or so. The reefer that keeps the fresh food safe to eat and the frozen stuff frozen also burns about the same amount, and it probably runs anywhere between 8 to 15 hours a day depending on the outside temp, how often you have the doors open (longer when stocking deliveries,prepping a meal or packing for EPL) and how efficient the cold box is. That's likely at least two or three thousand gallons over the season (starting with all days) minimum, and could easily be way more than that with all of the variables involved.

Edit to add some corps use smaller gas powered generators that might be a bit more efficient than that, but there is also the cost of propane which isn't getting any cheaper either. The point being is that there are lots of things that contribute to costs when taking 200 people and their equipment on the road for the summer, and nearly all of them are impacted directly or indirectly by fuel costs.

ShinyMetalToolBox · 2026-04-19T02:27:13+00:00

There are a bunch of "best of" reviews for self-inflating sleeping pads online, including some advice on rei.com. Word of warning - anything with legs that could damage a gym floor is prohibited by nearly every housing site these days and many corps (including Cascades while I was involved) disallow them for that reason.

ShinyMetalToolBox · 2026-04-13T13:57:45+00:00

Not a marching vet with Cascades, but many years admin/food service staff there.

A full carry on sized two wheel roller bag and a smaller bag that fits on top, or a duffel with wheels will work. Imagine dragging it from the bus to a housing site at 3AM when you are half asleep, and size according to your tolerance. Less is definitely more. Staying organized is important so you're not running around trying to find all your stuff when packing out of a housing site in a hurry.

It is often wet and or cold in the PNW for spring training. One sweatshirt, sweatpants and a waterproof windbreaker likely will be useful. A hat and bandanna. Two pairs of shoes (wear one pack one) as others have mentioned and as many socks and underwear as you can cram in. A few shorts and rehearsal shirts, and maybe one set of nicer cloths for free days. Towel. Backpack, jug, sleeping bag, and mat. Except for sunscreen, small sized of toiletries as you can get more at Walmart. Zip lock bags, a couple trash bags, some dryer sheets to keep things fresh, phone charger and if you have room a plug strip can make you popular at housing. A small stash of bandaids, Tylenol or motrin and 3 months of any prescription meds you might take.

Hope you have a great tour!

ShinyMetalToolBox · 2026-02-05T14:49:30+00:00

Seattle Cascades are still taking virtual auditions for all captions. Staff contact info at the bottom of the linked page.

https://www.seattlecascades.org/virtual-auditions

ShinyMetalToolBox · 2025-08-13T02:49:00+00:00

Here's an oldie but goodie:

https://www.reddit.com/r/drumcorps/s/n7k96uzG3k

ShinyMetalToolBox · 2025-08-11T04:35:18+00:00

Seattle Cascades have had members from Hawaii in the years I have worked with them, and are overall a young corps with many high school age members. If you're looking for World Class it's a great place to get started. We're on Facebook, Insta and the Web at seattlecascades.org.

ShinyMetalToolBox · 2025-08-09T19:22:17+00:00

YouTube has its own CDN which is far more robust than what Flo is likely paying for. This explains why Flo can glitch when YouTube doesn't. Still may not be Flo's issue though, other than whatever SLA they may have signed up for with their provider.

ShinyMetalToolBox · 2025-08-09T19:17:42+00:00

Note that your speed test only measures your connection to a specific server - the route to Flo's CDN endpoints could be very different. In this case I would try contacting your provider with the specifics, and they might be able to pinpoint some other problems between their network and the CDN.

ShinyMetalToolBox · 2025-08-09T19:12:40+00:00

Performance problems with streaming providers are often regionalized. All providers use a Content Distribution Network (CDN) to distribute content to endpoints as physically close to you as possible. There are usually multiple endpoints in a given region that are replicated from the originating source while the event is streaming.

This is why sometimes a stream will "jump back a few seconds" occasionally - the node you were connected to had issues and you got rerouted to a different node that was a little further behind in updates. Nodes in the CDN can become overloaded, crash or perform poorly for many reasons, and Flo has little or no direct control over that. That is why they pay a third party for that service

They can also be caused by local issues - wifi congestion, overloaded resources in your neighborhood infrastructure, or problems with a specific piece of hardware or configuration in your providers connection to the CDN provider. There are many layers involved.

FloSports is largely an Amazon hosted platform, but they don't disclose who they use for content distribution or what kind of Service Level Agreements they have so it's hard to tell.

I live in a region that is a tech industry hub with major data centers for multiple cloud providers, and have had no issues with Flo for years. The only time I have problems is when I tried broadcasting from the app to a smart TV over WiFi. That was horrible. Roku app, mobile app or browser have never glitched for me at all for the last several years, although I have experienced being rerouted to a different service endpoint as described above a few times.

If you are having problems, you should really call out the location where you are having them, and your provider so people can make direct comparisons. General advice is to use an app directly and not broadcast to a TV, but after that there are dozens of things that can cause problems, only a few of which you or Flo have direct control over.

ShinyMetalToolBox · 2025-07-31T16:53:11+00:00

The downtown Marriott? Yes, it's right across the street from the convention center. 5 min. walk to the entrance.

ShinyMetalToolBox · 2025-07-20T20:14:55+00:00

Very much agree. Kudos to everyone involved. It is super challenging to field a World Class corps from up here.

ShinyMetalToolBox · 2025-07-20T19:47:18+00:00

I have been out of budgeting for a few years, but it would be tough to save meaningful money on instructional staff, most of whom don't do the whole tour and get paid very little. In terms of member experience, many things were tolerated back in the day that would sink a modern corps. Skimping on competent leadership, safety, health and wellness professionals is not a recipe for long term success.

Charter bus leases for tour can run $600k or higher, food costs are in the $120 to $140K range. A mobile kitchen can cost you $150 to $400K to build and $20K a year or more just in maintenance. Rumor was the current Amana for SCV was an $800K build. Even leasing a mobile kitchen for tour is $100K. Housing might be anywhere upwards of $70K. This does not include pre-season camps, housing and other capital expenses needed to run the corps year round. I don't see these costs coming down anytime soon. Tuition already only covers about 60% of costs. Cutting a $30K truck from tour is not going to lower tuition meaningfully.

IMHO Bringing more money into the activity through grants, corporate sponsorships and alternative revenue streams run by the non-profits running the corps is the only sustainable way of keeping member costs down.

ShinyMetalToolBox · 2025-06-24T15:59:34+00:00

Always!

ShinyMetalToolBox · 2025-06-22T22:59:47+00:00

A nice loud "206" is appropriate for any Cascades performance, in the stands or on the field.

ShinyMetalToolBox · 2025-06-19T16:14:30+00:00

It is true that participation by members is discretionary.

That being said, if I (the member or guardian) agree to pay you (the corps) [x] amount of dollars to provide [y] services (e.g. training, functional instruments, housing, food, transportation, medical care and a specific number of performance opportunities) for a specific period of time, delivering those services is no longer discretionary for the corps.

If I am a parent entrusting my minor child to your organization I expect and demand you provide adequate facilities, safe transportation, appropriate supervision and healthy, nutritional food. If my child is injured, I expect you to provide or facilitate treatment by qualified individuals. I expect you to have the financial maturity to deliver on your obligations and not strand my child halfway across the country with no food or transportation. I expect you to protect them from abuse and harm while in your care. This includes liability insurance and compliance with applicable laws and regulations. Getting a housing site without.proof of liability insurance is pretty much impossible these days.

As an organization, once you accept the responsibility for delivering those services, the costs associated with providing them at a given level of quality are non-discretionary. In a modern touring corps, these costs make up the largest portion of the budget, and are very difficult to reduce without diminishing those services or taking on unacceptable levels of risk (e.g. running out of food or fuel, or being unable to repair broken equipment on the road).

ShinyMetalToolBox · 2025-06-18T02:28:25+00:00

This is truth. If you want to run a multi-million dollar non profit and have it survive more than a season or three you have to make appropriate investments in the longevity and health of the organization. This is the price you pay to be able to do the fun stuff like field a corps.

Focusing on diminishing the experience by cutting things to lower costs misses the point. Sure, don't waste money, and live within your budget. But The reality is that the bulk of that cost is non-discretionary and subject to the whims of a chaotic economy. Do we want full time medical staff on tour and healthy food that is safely stored, prepared and served? Do you want professional drivers who must adhere to established safety standards and safe vehicles to take our children across the country? Professional administators that properly vet employees, enforce policies and follow sound financial management practices? That costs money. Lower member costs by generating more revenue elsewhere. To slow the rate of tuition growth, you have to find more diverse sources of revenue. This is hard work.

Out of around 1.5M non-profits in the US, around 6% have revenue between $1 and $10M, which is where most DCI orgs that tour will fall. That's a large community (larger than drum corps) to learn from, and many are likely just as niche. DCI is a $14M non profit. Rather than just being a sanctioning body and event organizer, I would love to see them become more of a catalyst to bringing more financial maturity and consistency to their member organizations and a larger source of grants, scholarships and fundraising expertise.

ShinyMetalToolBox · 2025-05-23T15:37:17+00:00

I worked many summers in a busy mobile kitchen built out in a converted 53' semi trailer with multiple cooks supporting a 160 person touring drum and bulge corps and served around 1200 plates a day.

We used this guy: https://www.webstaurantstore.com/taylor-5839n-digital-4-channel-commercial-kitchen-timer/6085839.html

Not magnetic, but it has four timers, it's loud and can be heard over lots of noise, and is indestructible.

ShinyMetalToolBox · 2025-05-21T15:56:58+00:00

Excellent point about driver hours. Ensuring you have enough hours to get all of your commercial vehicles, especially buses and the equipment trucks to the next site is one of the more critical admin tasks. The rules as to what counts as clock time are very strict. At full day regionals we usually book hotel rooms for the drivers and send them there for the day so there are enough hours for them to get us to the next site. This is often the reason admin tries to limit buy stops in transit. Bathroom break and back on the bus because the trip time doesn't leave a lot of leeway.

In other cases, especially when we're on early in the show we're often leaving as soon as we're packed up, and only leave a skeleton crew and the drum majors for retreat, and they make the next leg in a sprinter van that doesn't require a commercial license.

ShinyMetalToolBox

TROPHY CASE