So we were given several websites to review and I chose three that I felt there really good websites:
Website: The Music Library Association
This website is really well done! There are many excellent resources here for those interested music libraries and/or those already working in them. One featre I really liked is that there is an employment section that has both jobs and itnernships (including one at Interlochen! Which for those of you who don't know is a popular and competitive arts camp).
Website: DRAM
This website is dedicated to recordings, cd quality sound, and liner notes for little known record labels (and a couple of well known artists like Duke Ellington). What I really enjoyed about this website is how their site is set up as well their graphics. It is very easy to navigate. For most people having an easy to navigate website is a huge welcome. Another thing I really like is how they've broken down the voice section.
Website: Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals
This website is new to me. It's a very well done website and kind of wish I could have had it last semester for one of my projects.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Week One - Part B
This post will focus on Chapter two in The future of the Music Business
One of the first things that is talked about that I find interesting is the debate of whether ripping cds to your computer for personal use is legal. Gordon writes that the recording industry doesn't want to fight it because they feel it would alienate people (pp. 26) which I completely agree with. Not to mention, it would be next to impossible to police it, as well as, if you can prove you have the CD, and are just ripping it to play it on an mp3 player, what is the harm? You still paid money for the stuff. As well as, no one makes portable CD players anymore, so pretty much you have to rip the CD if you want to listen to it!
The rest of the chapter looks at how webcasting has changed and the laws relating to that...There were several interesting comments about Pandora and Last.fm and how they were small and what were called narrowcasters. I wonder if that has changed since the book was published as Pandora has exploded since then. It was only still a small but popular site when the book came out (in 2008) but now it has blown up.
For future reference and bloggers out there. Type your stuff in word or notepad doc and then move it over. I had this huge long post and Blogger ate it and only saved the first paragraph...
One of the first things that is talked about that I find interesting is the debate of whether ripping cds to your computer for personal use is legal. Gordon writes that the recording industry doesn't want to fight it because they feel it would alienate people (pp. 26) which I completely agree with. Not to mention, it would be next to impossible to police it, as well as, if you can prove you have the CD, and are just ripping it to play it on an mp3 player, what is the harm? You still paid money for the stuff. As well as, no one makes portable CD players anymore, so pretty much you have to rip the CD if you want to listen to it!
The rest of the chapter looks at how webcasting has changed and the laws relating to that...There were several interesting comments about Pandora and Last.fm and how they were small and what were called narrowcasters. I wonder if that has changed since the book was published as Pandora has exploded since then. It was only still a small but popular site when the book came out (in 2008) but now it has blown up.
For future reference and bloggers out there. Type your stuff in word or notepad doc and then move it over. I had this huge long post and Blogger ate it and only saved the first paragraph...
Week one - Part A
This week's blog will cover chapters 1 and two in The Future of Music Business by Steve Gordon as well as a review of a website. Part A will cover Chapter 1 and Part B will cover chapter two and the website review.
While I was skimming the introduction of the book, there was a paragraph that talked about the suffering of the major labels and how they had all steadily lost profits since 1999. This got me thinking if this will happen to major publishing companies in terms of books in the future when a good majority of the population have ereaders such as Kindle or the Nook. I'm not convinced it will for several reasons. One, not everybody will be able to afford ereaders (or even iPads) right now. Maybe in the really distant future when they're much cheaper but at this point, no. Plus not everybody, even today has the needed access to computers. Don't get me wrong, I love my NookColor (though I didn't buy it to read ebooks, I bought it so I could read my image pdfs on it from SJSU) but I still love holding a book and, call me crazy, I love the smell of new books. So while the recording industry may be suffering, I don't think the publishing world (in terms of books) will go the same way.
Reading through chapter one which focuses on the basics of music laws and business, I noticed an error and it is not just a little grammatical or spelling error either. It is a big, does not know what he is talking about, error. He writes "the producer of a dramatic work (opera, musical comedy, or ballet) must negotiate such rights directly with the publisher or composer" (pp 9). This is not true. Take for example, the musical Cats written by Trevor Nunn and composted by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber and based on a poem by T.S. Elliot. To perform Cats in public you wouldn't contact Sir Andrew or the company that originally published it, no, you would contact Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization to have the performance rights.
Sources: http://www.musicals101.com/alphinde.htm
http://www.rnh.com/show_synopsis.asp?id=CS3&s=1
http://www.rnh.com/show_license_1.asp
Another thing that I thought of while reading this chapter is that every artist, no matter how big or how small, should really be reading this to understand what is going on not only with their contracts (if they have them) but with the songs that they sing and/or record.
Lastly, it was nice to read how exactly the courts have determined "fair use". I also didn't know that "radio broadcasters have to pay songwriters and publishers for the songs they play but they do not have to pay artists and labels to play the very same songs" (Gordon, 2008, pp. 19). This doesn't seem fair and I can truly understand why the recording industry wants to change it.
While I was skimming the introduction of the book, there was a paragraph that talked about the suffering of the major labels and how they had all steadily lost profits since 1999. This got me thinking if this will happen to major publishing companies in terms of books in the future when a good majority of the population have ereaders such as Kindle or the Nook. I'm not convinced it will for several reasons. One, not everybody will be able to afford ereaders (or even iPads) right now. Maybe in the really distant future when they're much cheaper but at this point, no. Plus not everybody, even today has the needed access to computers. Don't get me wrong, I love my NookColor (though I didn't buy it to read ebooks, I bought it so I could read my image pdfs on it from SJSU) but I still love holding a book and, call me crazy, I love the smell of new books. So while the recording industry may be suffering, I don't think the publishing world (in terms of books) will go the same way.
Reading through chapter one which focuses on the basics of music laws and business, I noticed an error and it is not just a little grammatical or spelling error either. It is a big, does not know what he is talking about, error. He writes "the producer of a dramatic work (opera, musical comedy, or ballet) must negotiate such rights directly with the publisher or composer" (pp 9). This is not true. Take for example, the musical Cats written by Trevor Nunn and composted by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber and based on a poem by T.S. Elliot. To perform Cats in public you wouldn't contact Sir Andrew or the company that originally published it, no, you would contact Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization to have the performance rights.
Sources: http://www.musicals101.com/alphinde.htm
http://www.rnh.com/show_synopsis.asp?id=CS3&s=1
http://www.rnh.com/show_license_1.asp
Another thing that I thought of while reading this chapter is that every artist, no matter how big or how small, should really be reading this to understand what is going on not only with their contracts (if they have them) but with the songs that they sing and/or record.
Lastly, it was nice to read how exactly the courts have determined "fair use". I also didn't know that "radio broadcasters have to pay songwriters and publishers for the songs they play but they do not have to pay artists and labels to play the very same songs" (Gordon, 2008, pp. 19). This doesn't seem fair and I can truly understand why the recording industry wants to change it.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Welcome
Welcome to my blog. This blog will be used to discuss musical things, first and foremost my readings for LIBR 220-14 in the SLIS program at SJSU. And the semester is over I'll probably be discussing musical things.
Here's a picture from one of my favorite musicals, Finaian's Rainbow signed by Cheyenne Jackson, Kate Baldwin and Jim Norton
Here's a picture from one of my favorite musicals, Finaian's Rainbow signed by Cheyenne Jackson, Kate Baldwin and Jim Norton
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