Excellent questions.
The main reason is that many of these performers are doing this for free. They love the idea, or they wouldn't have even responded to my emails.
Others are doing this because they just want Musopen to cover the cost of a professional recording studio, so they have a top-notch portfolio.
So most of the funds from this will be covering the concerti and recording studio costs, more than the "labor."
Aaron
If you're a person that wants to share or use the music in any way in addition to listening to them, yes definitely. It's also a way for people unfamiliar with music to browse and explore Chopin's music for free. Otherwise you're right.
API for Chopin actually. And it will be if we make it:)
It'll be structured data:
listing of all his music with composition dates
links from each recording to his sheet music
list of major events in his life
wikipedia and liner notes about each piece
geographical information related to the music or events in his life
etc.
So people can try to do various things, node map, timelines. We have some of our own ideas we'd like to try.
I should add,/. was absolutely essential to the success of our first Kickstarter. I should release some info on our backers from the first time around, it's pretty interesting data. Suffice to say Slashdot referrals made up 30% of the total. So I guess I'm saying I'm counting on you:)
Just about any other composer would be very challenging, a mixture of many more ensemble types, many more hours of music. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, would be easier but still very hard.
FYI Moonlight wasn't included in this project, and secondly, many live performances have coughing, thought our recordings for this Kickstarter were very clean.
Thanks for the comment. Please feel free to shoot me an email at aaron [at] musopen.org and I'll see what we can do to improve it.
Keep in mind most of the things that are lacking like that are due to volunteer constraints, if we could get more time we could add quite a bit.
Noted. Next time (if there is one) we will include all the files separately. This happened because i uploaded everything in a zip to archive.org and they turned it into a torrent for me. This was done because people wanted to download everything in one batch.
Separately, I went with Apple lossless because it is also now open source and most of our users use iTunes, and flac would confuse the hell out of them.
However, I'll also try to include FLAC from now on.
Every single musopen piece added to youtube is marked as copyright infringement. Its very frustrating for our users, and despite my pleading youtube hasn't been able to accomodate our site.
Hi there. We actually did post all the original lossless recordings, including all the ProTools files.
As for the mistakes, they are definitely in there. I wouldnt not call the recordings poor overall, but they do vary. What's important to me is
1) These are the first recordings every released into the world unencumbered by copyright restrictions
2) They are overall excellent performances. I would even argue many could be held up to some of the most notable orchestras
Quality is ultimately subjective, so we have to realize part of this is legitimate mistakes, and a large part is also people just preferring recordings they already know, other halls, conductors etc.
Regardless, given the ratio of money/ hours of music we got, the quality is pretty good considering.
Aaron here, founder of Musopen. I think you would be hard pressed to find any evidence that Musopen, or really any free online music service (spotify, itunes, rdio etc) is hurting symphonies. If there is a decline in attendance its because of a chance in musical tastes, not mp3s shared on the internet.
I know from personal experience that I only became interested in classical music when a CD was shared with me (illegally!) and I began searching out more on my own. I now attend concerts because nothing will ever match the quality of the sound, or the experience hearing it live. I know that for a fact because I've spent way to much on my stereo system.
To everyone posting here, thank you all for the donations and thoughts. It was a long and challenging project but I am very proud of the end result. I'm considering a second project, if anyone is interested in hearing about it in the next couple of weeks, please make sure to follow us on Twitter/FB/our blog etc: https://twitter.com/ajdunn83
or/musopen or
our blog at blog.musopen.org
Thanks again,
Aaron Dunn
Musopen.org
Slashdot Mirror
Excellent questions. The main reason is that many of these performers are doing this for free. They love the idea, or they wouldn't have even responded to my emails. Others are doing this because they just want Musopen to cover the cost of a professional recording studio, so they have a top-notch portfolio. So most of the funds from this will be covering the concerti and recording studio costs, more than the "labor." Aaron
Bach PD organ works? Can you upload those to Musopen?
Thanks for this, great feedback. Will keep it in mind if we make this one. Aaron
If you're a person that wants to share or use the music in any way in addition to listening to them, yes definitely. It's also a way for people unfamiliar with music to browse and explore Chopin's music for free. Otherwise you're right.
API for Chopin actually. And it will be if we make it :)
It'll be structured data:
listing of all his music with composition dates
links from each recording to his sheet music
list of major events in his life
wikipedia and liner notes about each piece
geographical information related to the music or events in his life
etc.
So people can try to do various things, node map, timelines. We have some of our own ideas we'd like to try.
Whatever is on wikipedia will be included. We're also consulting with a professor of Music who has written extensively about Chopin.
Sadly copyrighted, we've asked the performer to release them. No luck so far.
I should add, /. was absolutely essential to the success of our first Kickstarter. I should release some info on our backers from the first time around, it's pretty interesting data. Suffice to say Slashdot referrals made up 30% of the total. So I guess I'm saying I'm counting on you :)
Thanks for all the comments and for those that have backed us. I'll be here if anyone has any questions/comments they'd like answered. -Aaron
Just about any other composer would be very challenging, a mixture of many more ensemble types, many more hours of music. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, would be easier but still very hard.
Actually we did, now you know what was in the safe: http://www.dailydot.com/society/reddit-whatsinthisthing-locked-safe-new-zealand/
We're also going to offer standard CD formats, so no need to worry. If we raise enough money that is.
FYI Moonlight wasn't included in this project, and secondly, many live performances have coughing, thought our recordings for this Kickstarter were very clean.
Thanks for the comment. Please feel free to shoot me an email at aaron [at] musopen.org and I'll see what we can do to improve it. Keep in mind most of the things that are lacking like that are due to volunteer constraints, if we could get more time we could add quite a bit.
Some of the music you mention wasn't part of this project and was recorded by a college orchestra. I did want to re-record it, next time maybe.
Noted. Next time (if there is one) we will include all the files separately. This happened because i uploaded everything in a zip to archive.org and they turned it into a torrent for me. This was done because people wanted to download everything in one batch. Separately, I went with Apple lossless because it is also now open source and most of our users use iTunes, and flac would confuse the hell out of them. However, I'll also try to include FLAC from now on.
Every single musopen piece added to youtube is marked as copyright infringement. Its very frustrating for our users, and despite my pleading youtube hasn't been able to accomodate our site.
We have a library of music that is unrelated to this project, that is one of them. Cheers, Aaron
As well as the Musopen String Quartet link: http://musopen.org/music/by/performer/Musopen-String-Quartet
Hi there. We actually did post all the original lossless recordings, including all the ProTools files. As for the mistakes, they are definitely in there. I wouldnt not call the recordings poor overall, but they do vary. What's important to me is 1) These are the first recordings every released into the world unencumbered by copyright restrictions 2) They are overall excellent performances. I would even argue many could be held up to some of the most notable orchestras Quality is ultimately subjective, so we have to realize part of this is legitimate mistakes, and a large part is also people just preferring recordings they already know, other halls, conductors etc. Regardless, given the ratio of money/ hours of music we got, the quality is pretty good considering.
Aaron here, founder of Musopen. I think you would be hard pressed to find any evidence that Musopen, or really any free online music service (spotify, itunes, rdio etc) is hurting symphonies. If there is a decline in attendance its because of a chance in musical tastes, not mp3s shared on the internet. I know from personal experience that I only became interested in classical music when a CD was shared with me (illegally!) and I began searching out more on my own. I now attend concerts because nothing will ever match the quality of the sound, or the experience hearing it live. I know that for a fact because I've spent way to much on my stereo system.
To everyone posting here, thank you all for the donations and thoughts. It was a long and challenging project but I am very proud of the end result. I'm considering a second project, if anyone is interested in hearing about it in the next couple of weeks, please make sure to follow us on Twitter/FB/our blog etc: https://twitter.com/ajdunn83 or /musopen or
our blog at blog.musopen.org
Thanks again,
Aaron Dunn
Musopen.org