Comments on: Open Letter Regarding Radio Three’s Policy on Downloading of Classical Music

By: chockwork.net » Blog Archive » A Tchaikovsky Moment.

chockwork.net » Blog Archive » A Tchaikovsky Moment. — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 21:17:30 +0000

[...] Except, it wasn’t universal acceptance. Record Companies complained that this was unfair competition from a public service broadcaster, so when a Bach season was announced, surprise surprise, no music was available for download. Despite the fact that the music was wholly paid for from public funds, and the recordings actually belong to us, the licence payers. [...]

By: crisbass

crisbass — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 17:05:26 +0000

1. Plug receiving equipment into your soundcard.
2. Use a wave editor such as ‘Sound Forge’ to record programmes in real time.
3. Access ‘Listen Again’ to patch up any glitches!
4. Make files available via (e.g.) ‘Limewire’.
I have paid my license fee, and I understand Herr Bach has long since passed away (!) - at any rate, his material is well out of copyright by now.
I have put in considerable effort to capture as much of the recent broadcast as possible; if I had a spare ‘grand’ or two, of course, it would have been much easier to buy it all on vinyl or CD.
Can’t do that, so no loss to the corporate jackals (actually, ultimately to their material ‘gain’) - so that’s all right then.
Some time in early January, I plan to make these .wav files available to my friends for your personal listening pleasure: they are recorded at 10megs/second (CD quality) and I will not be compressing any more quality out than has already been done! The stream was via ‘Freeview’, which I understand to be at a higher rate than ‘DAB’ (really!). Any technical advice is always welcome, by the way . . .
So if you want any of this, download ‘Limewire’ (obviously, if in doubt, search Google), then search for ‘Bach’ in ‘audio’ - a broadband, or faster connection will be necessary!
Give me a few days or a week or so - I am doing this for free, for the love of Bach, best quality poss. (though not guaranteed), so be patient, and please bear with me.
(I’ll also endeavour to catalogue what I have in a .txt file - also one or two chunks I’ve missed, and would like if you have them - thanks!)
PLEASE DO NOT CONTACT ME UNLESS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY!
Love & respect to all,
Chris.
(also see http://www.bach-radio.com/onair.php)

By: David Brake

David Brake — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 10:24:55 +0000

Have I missed something Don? All I can download of Bach that I can see http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/bach/downloads.shtml is a bunch of “bites” - biographical information about the man. Unless I use something like Total Recorder to turn the streamed music into MP3s…

By: Don Magee

Don Magee — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 21:45:23 +0000

The Bach season has been inspirational. I’m finding a new intriquing source of musical delight. Being able to download allows me to explore the music further and will result in me buying many of them. it has already caused me to buy ‘The Learned musician.
Music industry you are incapable of seeing the opportunities staring you in the puss. You have become slaves to defensiveness which results in the more you try to protect the more you will lose control. Some of us know the extent to which you have been ‘gloriously’ripping the public for years.
Why, like pigs in muck,do you wnat to add insult to injury to a public who don’t, in truth, like, love or trust you.

By: Mike Phillipson

Mike Phillipson — Thu, 24 Nov 2005 12:43:15 +0000

The BBC should have the courage to be bold and look to serve the interests of license fee payers and the public at large, and not the Dinosaurs of the current recording industry who consistently fail to understand that a sea change is under way with regard to the “ownership” of music.

By: Mary Branscombe

Mary Branscombe — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 12:43:41 +0000

The BBC is making admirable moves with the Backstage API and the planned publication of back catalogue. The record industry is acting like a strange combination of a dinosaur and an ostrich. As a publicly funded entity, why is the BBC forced to respond to complaints from the music industry in the first place? Isn’t it between the Beeb, the government and the licence payer?

By: Jos� Neto Fainstein Fernandes - Lawyer

Jos� Neto Fainstein Fernandes - Lawyer — Mon, 21 Nov 2005 15:23:13 +0000

CULTURE must be taken around the world. IT CAN NOT BE PROHIBITED!!!!

By: rufus

rufus — Mon, 21 Nov 2005 10:07:54 +0000

Two comments:

1. Simon: As stated in the letter the suggested metric was value to British society (an indicator that should include both commercial and cultural concerns). Thus it is not simply a question of total sales to record companies (and whether the sales increasing effect outweighs the displacing effect), as explained in the paragraph beginning Even were it the case that there were negative effects on the sales of record labels the benefits to British society would greatly outweigh these losses. Your comment on greater liberality on adaptation and reproduction is a good one but would have take the original letter into a much wider area.

2. Andrew: if you notice the letter specific request is providing free online downloads of the material wherever it is able to. (emphasis added). This is not requesting that the BBC go out and purchase rights to existing work so that it can make it freely available online but that, where it already has the rights — as was the case with the Beethoven symphonies since they were recorded by the BBC symphony orchestra — it should make them freely available.

By: andrew

andrew — Mon, 21 Nov 2005 09:20:52 +0000

why not write to the record companies and MCPS (Royalty collection society) instead? The bbc can’t just suddenly decide
to give away free downloads when it would either be fined millions by the music industry, or have to pay millions to
license the tracks.

i somehow doubt that license-fee payers would be happy to be indirectly funding the already-too-fat record company
exec’s pockets…

By: Simon Gibbs

Simon Gibbs — Sun, 20 Nov 2005 20:02:13 +0000

I’m pleased to see the increase in visible progress with ORG, of which this is an example.

However, I do think its important to keep in mind that the BBC is a state funded entity. It is therefore entirely reasonable, many would say preferable, that its activities should be restricted to some degree. Otherwise high taxation (license fees) and harmful competition with the private sector will be the result. I’m not saying that the restricions proposed are the right restrictions, just that ORG should appreciate and address the economic arguments as well as the cultural arguments.

The two important metrics are IMHO the sterling value of displaced sales (i.e. the proportion of the creative economy which is nationalised) and the degree to which the private sector participants in the creative economy are assisted (i.e. by sparking interest in classical music as a genre).

Perhaps the BBC should not only continue the Beethoven policy but also drop the licence restrictions on adaptation and reproduction, allowing record companies and individual artists full access to use the material in their work.

SJG

PS *cough* Sony *cough* rootkit *cough*