Hello, my beautiful and lovely Splicers! Just me, Thaumata, popping in with my periodic friendly reminder about what is ok to upload to Splice, and what is NOT ok to upload to Splice. I like to think of the sounds I upload as Legos. (Remember Legos?) They should be little bricks of sound that other people can stick together in different combinations to create big giant creations that are cool and unique. A drum loop or a melody, for example, are great, and you can make these using all kinds of programs.

What is NOT ok to upload here are entire MP3s of your favorite band or rapper. For starters, even though they are fun to listen to, they’re not very easy to remix, and remixing is what brought us all together, right? Right! Most importantly, these songs are almost always copyrighted, which means that you don’t have that person’s permission to put their music here. These things will get deleted from the site, and that will leave a big hole in your song (and the songs that anyone else made with it.) Nobody wants that, so don’t do it, ok?

The best thing you can do if you want to see a certain artist here is to tell that artist! A little peer pressure can go a long way, you know! So, do your part to keep Splice rockin’, and know that your fellow Splicers will love you for it.

Want to know what’s happening around Splice and make more friends? We make it easy for you to get more involved! Come to our blog to read more about great new songs, contests and their winners, or just to see something cool. If you’ve got suggestions, questions, or just want to chat with your neighbors, you should come to the forum. We’ve also got a MySpace page and a feed you can add to your LiveJournal. And of course, you can always come and say hello to me here. (I am a real girl, promise.)

Did you know you can put Splice songs in your favorite mp3 player? You can save an MP3 of any sound or song you like just by right clicking it’s MP3 button and picking “Save Target As…” or “Save Link As”. (If you’re a Mac kid, it’s Apple + click.) Take the music with you!

Thaumata here on prize patrol. Have you heard that Altec Lansing has sent me some awesome prizes for our ongoing weekly contests? Last week, we remixed Rig and gave away a really cool stereo for your iPod. This week, it’s a surround sound system! That’s right - win the contest, crank up the Splice and share the love with your neighbors. Come read all about it here in the blog, but be quick! The current contest is over on Monday, February 5th!

Remix yourself a trip to London courtesy of Channel 4, watch Splice on Attack of the Show and learn the history of the Amen break. Where can you do all of these things and more? Over in the blog, of course! If you’re not reading, you’re missing out!

Someone just told me that Pete over at Mashable.com has started a social network contest. We have tons of users from Mashable! Come on over there and help vote Splice to the top of the music category! (It’ll keep you off of Santa’s Naughty List.)

Do you have mad ninja Splice skills? October does, and he’s written up a great guide for you to hone your own skills in Splice-Fu! Thanks!

Did you know that it’s not ok to upload copyrighted work to Splice? Unless an artist has specifically licensed their works under a Creative Commons license, it doesn’t go here. That means that if you upload an MP3 of your favorite band, you run the risk of having that sound deleted and ending up with holes in your songs! The best way to prevent that is to either only upload sounds you made yourself, or to find some that are CC Licensed. Let’s keep Splice creative!

Anyone who has ever played The Sims is familiar with the catchy music that plays throughout the game. Now, thanks to a collaboration between Splice, EARS and Nettwerk Records, you have a chance to create that music! Remix The Sims by November 31, tag your entries with simscontest and win your spot on their next soundtrack! Come to the blog to learn more!

Election Day is over, and so is our contest! We want to congratulate groovebox for submitting the winning entry, PartyBoy. If you haven’t listened to it yet, DO! It’s genius! You can read about the runners up over here.