Slashdot Mirror
Open Source Music
X-Ross writes "As big labels battle it out in a Post-Napster world, open source comes to music ... Creative Commons has a feature on an open source style music site for artists launched by Sal Randolph. Here is the link to her site Opsound."
The site is getting slashdotted at the moment, but I think I already looked at the site before. It's a good idea, and I'm glad someone is trying it.
I just noticed yesterday that to use music as background for a video or presentation, you need to "rent it" and that those fees are pretty steep. It is only the logical conclusion of royalty-based music distribution, but the end result is that artists are unable to use the cultural building blocks to make new things.
People get in a panic about written copyright, but did you you ever stop and realize that no recorded music has yet fallen into the public domain? It would be one thing to say: you may listen/download/use only music that is in the public domain, but quite frankly, but up until very recently, there really hasn't existed any such kind of music. Some protections have been established for fair use and sampling, but individuals find it rather scary to risk the threat of litigation.
The problem with mp3 "stealing" is not that you are stealing money from the record companies, but that you are ignoring those artists who have established liberal distribution rights. If individuals were required to pay "full price" for a download/mp3 (however ridiculous that might be), it would give groups like opsound a chance to be heard. If licensed music is as free as creative commons music, then the consumer sees nothing wrong with the current state of lawlessness. If however, licensed music were controlled by some sort of drm, the natural instinct of many people would be to ignore them and look for more alternative sounds. And I would argue that artists, viewing the tradeoffs, might be more inclined to choose putting music in the public domain (if it resulted in more publicity). The status quo gives no real advantages for charitable artists.
I should mention that a wonderful book Digital Aboriginals talks about this issue, asking whether anyone can "own the wind."
Robert Nagle, Idiotprogrammer, Houston
As it is, the final mixed product (anything derived from a final 2 track mix - i.e. CD, 8-track tape, LP, etc.) is equivalent to a binary. To have the "source, you must have access to all the multitracked elements. This is the recorded stuff and any MIDI tracks also. Other than isolated instances (like the "mix a Beck song" promotion a few years back for Acid), I don't think any artist (or whoever owns the multi track source) will be willing to let anyone have them, even if it were simple to do. Yeah, one could reverse engineer the source by recording a new multitrack source, but no matter how well these new musicians can mimic the original artist, it still isn't the same thing. The new "source" can never be complete, since it will lack the true personal playing style of the artist. And I doubt the original artist will be at your beck and call just to lay you down a new track.
When I look at this, as a musician, I see a flawed system. Sure, I support the concepts, but it simply doesn't have the same freedoms that an independant artist has come to expect and it doesn't have the money that the signed artists have come to expect.
Why would I want to throw my material out there for free when I can make a little scratch selling it to the locals? Sure, I offer a lot of it up for free, thanks to the powers that I have as an independant, but the fact that I often give it out for free doesn't mean I should offer my stuff up like this.
It's just impractical.
If this is like any other online label, its TOS will require artists to guarantee that any musical works that they wrote and recorded are original. How can an artist guarantee that he did not accidentally copy a popular song? What specific steps can an artist take to avoid George Harrison's fate?
Will I retire or break 10K?
(disclaimer: I'm a part of blip)
this is a perfect time to mention justablip recordings, a new music label based in London. blip has been started by Thrash (Kris Weston), formerly of the Orb. it has been formed over his problems with the music industry & frustrations w/ large corporations that fund death & strangle your rights. Justablip music (electronic/experimental/washingmachinesexmusic) will be released under a free license (as yet undetermined).
anyways, check out some of the articles that Thrash has written & see where he's coming from. there are no releases available for download, but they should be shortly, I think the first release may be a poke at Madonna that most people on here will enjoy. sign up at the website too.
ant
justablip director