[pd-discuss] Fwd: News release: The sound of music - for the first time in 60 years

Fri Jul 9 21:26:49 UTC 2010

On 9 July 2010 22:14, Daniel Leech-Wilkinson
<daniel.leech-wilkinson at kcl.ac.uk> wrote:
> The answers to all your questions are on the CHARM website!
> <www.charm.kcl.ac.uk>

First off, I should add a big congratulations on completing this  this
done. It's a wonderful endeavour and really impressive!

> http://www.charm.kcl.ac.uk/about/about_copy.html is probably a good place to
> start. :)
>
> But briefly, the sound files are free for listening but not for reissue.
> You'll be able to learn more about the data from a good look round the site.
> Of the data available for download WERM (The World's Encyclopaedia of
> Recorded Music) is most urgently in need of more work (see especially the
> last section of
> http://www.charm.kcl.ac.uk/discography/search/disco_intro.html). I'd be very
> willing to provide the XML for WERM if someone were willing to tag it more
> thoroughly and share the results with us.

We'd be delighted and able to help in improving this dataset. Would
you be happy to "openly license" the current material, e.g. by stating
that the data is under one of these data licenses:

<http://www.opendefinition.org/licenses/#Data>

For example the Open Data Commons attribution license:
<http://www.opendatacommons.org/licenses/by/>

Though very simple to do this would make a huge difference to getting
people involved in contributing ...

Rufus

> Rufus Pollock wrote:
>
> And I believe Professor Leech-Wilkinson (or a colleague) from CHARM is
> on this list!
>
> I remember meeting with them 3-4 years ago about the project and
> sharing metadata [1]. It's great to see that the music is now finally
> released! We should also get in touch about the metadata (I remember
> they were engaged in digitizing a large commercial paper catalogue
> from the 50s ...)
>
> Rufus
>
> [1]:<http://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/pd-discuss/2007-June/000205.html>
>
>
> On 9 July 2010 18:15, Jonathan Gray <jonathan.gray at okfn.org> wrote:
>
>
> Interesting. I wonder:
>
> (i) how much of the original material is in the public domain
> (ii) whether the digital copies are free for anyone to reuse (either
> in public domain, or at least under an open license...)
>
> All the best,
>
> Jonathan
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>
> News release
> 8 July 2010
>
> The sound of music - for the first time in 60 years
>
> This week’s top ten includes one UK artist and 9 from overseas – but
> it wasn’t always that way.
>
> Before two record companies merged to form EMI in the 1930s, UK-based
> artists formed the backbone of their catalogues – but after the merger
> many of them were dropped to make way for more lucrative international
> musicians.
>
> Now over 2000 recordings by those British and Irish artists are online
> in an open JISC-funded archive at King’s College London - allowing
> listeners and researchers to rediscover leading musicians who were
> once household names.
>
> Most of the recordings are making their first public appearance since
> they came out on gramophone records over 60 years ago and are linked
> to a range of research resources about the history of recording to
> help people make the most of the collection.
>
> Professor Daniel Leech-Wilkinson, project manager, said: “There is
> still a huge amount of recorded music that remains inaccessible in old
> formats. While the earliest formats are remarkably secure on account
> of their storage medium, very few people can now find, and still fewer
> can play, 78rpm discs. There is therefore much to be gained for the
> musical public, as well as for students and researchers, from projects
> that transfer and reissue early recordings.”
>
> The discs were selected specifically to highlight world-class British
> and Irish performers recorded between 1900 and 1950, especially
> artists neglected by the newly-formed EMI after the merger of the
> Gramophone Co and Columbia in 1931.
>
> Distinguished author and critic John Steane of Gramophone magazine
> joined the team to curate the recordings, which are now available for
> free streaming as MP3s or for high quality download.
>
> There are also some unusual pieces in the collection – including a
> recording of the choir singing at the coronation of King George VI and
> Queen Elizabeth in 1937 which includes one of the most spectacular
> wrong notes in recorded history from the organ.
>
> Ben Showers, programme manager at JISC, said: “By making so many
> recordings available once again, ‘Musicians of Britain and Ireland’
> aims to make possible a major reassessment of the history of musical
> performance in Britain, and to enable new research into the ways in
> which business decisions by record companies can profoundly change
> public perceptions of musical excellence.”
>
> The project is part of JISC’s investment in bringing the past into the
> present, by supporting collections to open up the rich content that
> they hold.
>
> Access the collection online at
> <http://www.charm.kcl.ac.uk/sound/sound.html>
>
> Find out more about JISC’s investment in digital content at
> <http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/digitisation>
>
>
>
> --
> Jonathan Gray
>
> Community Coordinator
> The Open Knowledge Foundation
> http://blog.okfn.org
>
> http://twitter.com/jwyg
> http://identi.ca/jwyg
>
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>
>
>
>
>
> --
> Daniel Leech-Wilkinson
> Professor of Music
> King's College London
> Strand
> London WC2R 2LS
> +44 (0)207 848 2576

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