You don’t need a library card to check out Blast, Huntsville’s new online platform for streaming music from local artists.

Launched August 31 by the Huntsville/Madison County Public Library as their contribution to Mayor Tommy Battle’s Music Initiative, Blast is Huntsville’s first streaming platform to feature local artists, build local music libraries and catalogs, and to engage and support local artists throughout the community.

Annie Phillips, digital services manager for the library and the project manager for Blast, said they started the platform in February and spent about a month accepting the first round of submissions from Tennessee Valley artists.

“It’s a blessing the diversity of music we have in our market,” Phillips said. “Blast feeds into the mission of the Huntsville Music Board to improve the music economy.

Artists uploaded two or more musical tracks to the Blast platform, along with album art and their profile. They can also add a PayPal link so listeners can tip them for their work.

“In addition to streaming their music, artists accepted onto the platform are paid between $200 and $300 as an honorarium,” said Phillips. “We will be featuring a new artist every week and we want to keep the buzz going as we move towards a second round of artists in February 2022.

“It is a great way to help the community discover new artists and follow musicians they have been listening to a long time.”

There will be two selection rounds per year and over 40 local musicians were accepted for the first round by a music curator team made up of community musicians and local music aficionados.

The first Blast curator team consisted of Codie Gopher, a local musician and member of the Music Board of Directors under Mayor Battle’s Music Initiative; Michael Kilpatrick, one of Huntsville’s own award-winning musicians with a 35-year career in music, radio and television; and Matt Wake, a music journalist for the Huntsville Times, Spin, Rolling Stone and Billboard.

Four members of the library staff were also on the team: branch manager of the Calvary Hill library, Courtney Braggs, who is responsible for giving the Blast platform its name; Suzanne Flynn, coordinator of the HMCPL Summer Concert Series; David Lilly, librarian in the Special Collections Department; and Phillips herself.

“Blast represents a quintessential and fundamental story of what Huntsville is doing to support music and local musicians,” said Ryan Murphy, president of the Venue Group who is managing the new Huntsville Amphitheater at MidCity for the City of Huntsville.

“The Huntsville Amphitheater will provide cultural programming and support the local music scene in part by supporting the public library’s streaming platform, Blast; and by offering the more than 40 local musicians from around the Tennessee Valley opportunities to perform the platform’s music live onstage starting next spring.”

The Blast platform is easy to use. Go to https://blast.hmcpl.org, choose an artist or an album and hit ‘Play’. The tunes stream in your browser.