MNspin makes Minnesota music widely available through the power of the library

By Jill Riley | The Current

Host Jill Riley interviews Ehsan Alam and Jeff Radford of MNspin on The Current. This interview has been edited for time and clarity.

We know that Minnesota has a long-storied history of great music, and this state has produced some pretty big names who at one time, let's not forget, were the up and comers, and then went on to international stardom. Yes, there's Bob Dylan and Prince and Soul Asylum. And Lizzo, who — not born here — but spent the beginning of her career right here in Minnesota.

With every year, every scene, each region of the state, Minnesota continues to be fertile ground for great music. And we know that here at The Current; it's why we say, "Great music lives here." But there are so many different ways to connect with the Minnesota music community; communities within the Minnesota music scene connect with each other and with music fans in a variety of ways: there's the old-school radio, the internet, and in-person events at various venues around the state.

But how about the library? I know you're thinking books, right? But you can think so much bigger and so much more when it comes to the library, because I've got something to tell you about here that's a combo of the internet and the library and the music scene. There's this ongoing project and collection of Minnesota music from the Hennepin County Library called MNspin. I connected with two librarians and coordinators of MNspin, Ehsan Alam and Jeff Radford. Listen to our interview using the audio player above, and read a transcript below.

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When it comes to MNspin. I wonder if you could just start by telling us what it is.

Jeff Radford: MNspin is a streaming and download service brought you by Hennepin County Library, paid for by the Friends of the Library. Now what's really cool about what we do is we're an all-Minnesota streaming service, so we relate to artists all over Minnesota, ask them to submit to our curator team, that music is evaluated by this team. And if artists are accepted, we pay them $200 for a two-year contract, and they get to keep all the rights.

I wonder if you could tell me about kind of the curation team. How does that part fit in?

Ehsan Alam: Well, we get many experts from across the music community in Minnesota to come in. We usually have community curators, and then we usually have a few staff curators as well from within our organization. And each song is listened to and evaluated by two curators, and they give it scoring, and we have to kind of triangulate that at the end. We try to get about 100 in at the end.

Jeff Radford: When you talk about your curators and you know, they're listening to the music, evaluating scoring, what are some things that you're listening for? Is there kind of a checklist of you know, this is what we want to have as part of a collection? Here are some things that we want to make sure that we're checking off the list?

Ehsan Alam: Well, a lot of that is the discretion of the curator, because we rely on their expertise. But there are things that we are looking for. Minnesota has a really rich tapestry of a music community; we want to represent the established traditions of rock and roll and R&B and hip hop, but we also are looking for everything that our state produces, and we want to give kind of fair visibility to all of that.

How long has MNspin been a thing? Like, where did that seed get planted? When did that seed get planted? Where did the idea come up, music at the library?

Jeff Radford: Well, I've been a music librarian at the downtown library for about 20 years, so I've known a lot of artists over the years. And when streaming came in, we'd be talking to these artists and the money they were making compared to CDs was really, you know, falling off the charts; it was sad. Also, we wanted a way to connect the library to some of the really cool music in Minnesota and our patrons to some really cool music. So we started just thinking about how to do it. We found a vendor who actually does what we needed them to do: connect the library to a website that we could put music up on. One thing led to another, we formed a team over the years — seven years now! Every year, we take it to the next level, and we have over 500 albums and well over 450 artists on MNspin now.

Now when it comes to musicians submitting music, what are some of the parameters there? What should Minnesota musicians know about submitting music?

Ehsan Alam: One of our criteria is that we ask that it have been created in the last five years. Other than that, really, there aren't a lot of stipulations. So established acts, up and coming, unknown, if you're just making music in your basement, we wouldn't turn that away.

Jeff Radford: We do prefer tracks that are mastered.

Do I have to have a library card to check out the music? Or can I just go to a website and start enjoying?

Ehsan Alam: You don't need a library card. You know, you could be anywhere in the world and stream this.

Jeff Radford: One caveat, though: You do need, if you want to download, you do have to have a card to download.