We regret to say that Texas Music Partners must put the after-school STEAM education courses on hold for at least the fall semester 2024-25.

Due to funding issues and a lack of response from teachers to teach our courses, TMP is having to regroup and come up with alternate solutions to continue our after-school program. Please be patient, we still plan to offer this program to you but we need to do it in a way that doesn’t compromise quality.

We are sorry about this development and we’ll keep you posted on the progress of this. We hope to be back very soon!

Texas Music Partners started a blog called TechArts Tuesday, at the end of 2017, to give the public insight as to what STEAM is and how it is being used around the globe, as well as how people are using music and technology.  We scoured the web for interesting articles and posted a short description of the article with a link and a picture to let people know what was happening.  We did this for free, as an educational service, and to help others understand TMP’s mission.

Now it seems there’s a new bully online by the name of PicRights.  PicRights is a “license compliance service” to third-party content clients in North America and Europe.  Actually, they created a bot that can search thousands of websites for pictures they deem to have a right to, in the name of their “clients”, whether there is a legitimate reason for the post or not.  Some unwitting suspect even received a notification from PicRights about a photo that the suspect actually created and owned.

Well, now they are claiming that some of the TechArts Tuesday posts on our website are non-compliant and are demanding a fee for use without submitting proof that they have the right to charge us anything at all.

This is a predatory practice and while still legal, it is very slimy and they are not at all transparent.  This is a company that automates everything and relies on volume to make money.  If you reply, you are talking to a bot, not a person.

Consequently, Texas Music Partners had to delete all TechArts Tuesday articles to avoid further harassment, which is unfortunate because our intentions were good and we were promoting the articles in good faith.  Leave it to the greedy to mess that up.

We apologize for removing the articles from our website and are looking at new ways to give you interesting information from the STEAM community concerning music and technology.

Thank you PicRights for ruining a good thing.

Here is an article about PicRights, from a law firm

BTW, the emoji is free, with attribution

Mad icons created by Justicon – Flaticon

Join us for a relaxing afternoon at Little Woodrow’s, Southpark Meadows from 2-5 pm, for our 2nd Annual Spring Fling Party, benefiting Texas Music Partners!

Little Woodrow’s, Southpark Meadows is at 9500 I-35 #100, Austin, Texas 78748

There will be
– Live Music
– Vendor Booths
– Food
– Face Painting
– Games

This event is family-friendly and dog friendly so bring the whole family for some fun, food and to help a good cause!

More info at https://texasmusicpartners.org

#fudraiser #party #community #livemusic #familyfriendly #dogfriendly

Texas Music Partners offers 7-8 week after-school programs and we are currently working with AISD’s ACE after-school program.  This school year, TMP is offering courses, at 6 elementary schools, the opportunity to work with TMP and take courses like:

1. Creating a Digital Collage
2. How to Create a Podcast
3. Intro to DJing
4. Intro to Editing Photos of Musicians

We would like to thank the following schools for allowing us to come in, for the fall semester, and work with their students to help them find a creative passion.

• Perez Elementary
• Wooten Elementary
• Palm Elementary
• Ortega Elementary