| Opsound | 2003-05-26 16:49 0 comments |
 by Flemming FunchFrom Creative Commons, a feature article about Sal Randolp, a New York-based artist who has launched a series of intriguing open source creativity projects. One of them is OpSound, which applies the idea of open source and copyleft to music production. Musicians contribute sounds to a sound pool. Others can take sounds from the pool, mix them, use them as is, give them away, sell them, or whatever. "Opsound is in part an attempt to apply some aspects of open source software's example in the context of music. Like software hackers, musicians are very often motivated by the pleasures of making, and the desire to share their work with others. The way the music industry operates does offer the possibility for a small number of musicians to make a great deal of money, but it doesn't function well for the vast majority of people who are making music. The current situation of the music industry begs for alternative structures to be invented and created."She also says, however, that many artists still have a disconnect in how they think about copyrights, implicitly thinking copyrights only exist to protect them personally, not realizing that it also stops them from building upon anybody else's work. It takes education to show people that everybody, including the artist, typically has much more to gain from free sharing than they need to be afraid of losing. Simple free sharing allows and inspires others to distribute your work for you, and it will reach many more people much faster. |