Creative Commons | Circulation

Free Music Archive: It's not just free music; it's good music

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

picture-3 The Free Music Archive definitely lives up to its motto: It’s not just free music; it’s good music.

From their About page:

The Free Music Archive is an interactive library of high-quality, legal audio downloads. The Free Music Archive is being directed by WFMU, the most renowned freeform radio station in America. Radio has always offered the public free access to new music. The Free Music Archive is a continuation of that purpose, designed for the age of the internet.

Every mp3 you discover on The Free Music Archive is pre-cleared for certain types of uses that would otherwise be prohibited by outdated copyright law. Are you a podcaster looking for pod-safe audio? A radio or video producer searching for instrumental bed music that won’t put your audience to sleep? A remix artist looking for pre-cleared samples? Or are you simply looking for some new sounds to add to your next playlist? The Free Music Archive is a resource for all that and more, and unlike other websites, all of the audio has been hand-picked by established audio curators.

Could this be on par with already well-established ccMixter.org? I say yes! FMA offers searching by genre, curator, license, artist, recently added, etc. The site also offers a social community with the opportunity to create your own profile, playlists and blog, comment on music, and network with other users.

Uncensored Interview: 1000+ creative commons licensed videos of interviews with musicians

Sunday, March 8th, 2009

For independent music fans, Uncensored Interview provides free, downloadable creative-commons licensed short videos of uncensored conversations with various bands. Their goal is to provide an opportunity for music fans to get to know their favorite bands and artists “via candid conversations that cover everything from the topical to the personal to the frivolous and absurd.” Over 1000 videos have been released.

For an example of a video from UI, here’s a short clip of Nellie McKay talking about pirating music and the Recording Industry.

Nellie McKay: The Real Pirates.

Credits:

Doctorow, C. (5 March, 2009) Uncensored Interview Releases 1000+ Creative Commons Theora Videos

Benenson, F. (5 March, 2009). Uncensored Interview Releases 1000+ Creative Commons Theora Videos

Tags: creative commons, free, music, musicians, uncensored interview, video

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Oregon State University Joins Flickr Commons

Saturday, February 28th, 2009

osu-pic-archived1 By way of The Wired Campus from The Chronicle of Higher Education: Oregon State U. Releases Photo Collections to Flickr Commons.

Go Beavs!

What I found most interesting from this article – beyond the fact that OSU is the first University to join The Commons – is a quote from OSU Archives Librarian Tiah Edmunson-Morton:

“These same images sat in our own Flickr account—and people looked at them sort of, but nobody commented on them and nobody tagged them,” said Ms. Edmunson-Morton. “When we launched into the Commons, it was literally shocking: Our first week, we had 15,000 image views. And we hadn’t that many in our other Flickr account, total.” Oregon State’s non-Commons account had been open for seven months.”

You can see the pictures from OSU Archives on flickr at Oregon State University Archives.

Photo credit: Forest Service truck at Oakridge Civillian Conservation Camp F25, Co. 943, Willamette National Forest from flickr user Oregon State University Archives. This photo has no known copyright restrictions.

Tags: archives, commons, creative commons, flickr, Oregon State University, OSU, photos

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