Month: July 2005

Its a classic case of a failing business model and cultural elitism working hand in hand . . . . more interesting though is that the BBC is leading the action against these forces. Bring it on.

As the BBC prepares to announce the tremendous success of its free Beethoven downloads, the Independent reports that classical labels are less than rhapsodic:

This week the BBC will announce there have been more than a million downloads of the symphonies during the month-long scheme. But the initiative has infuriated the bosses of leading classical record companies who argue the offer undermines the value of music and that any further offers would be unfair competition.

The BBC made all nine of the Beethoven symphonies available for free download, with commentary, as part of their Beethoven Experience.

Read more.

Negativland are interviewed, and, not surprisingly have interesting things to say.

In the end, we came up with a sampling license that was saying, in effect, “You can reuse bits and pieces of our work for profit. You can sell it. But we’d like it if you mention where your sources come from.” And the only exception to this is that advertising can’t use it. It’s okay for anyone to use anything, except in advertising, because we don’t consider advertising to be free speech. It’s paid speech. And as artful as advertising can be, it is not art.