Monday, November 05, 2007
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Why Free Music
Behold:

Why Free Music?

I don't charge money for my music, and have placed it under the
"Free-as-in-Freedom" Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license so
more people can get to know my music than would be possible if I sold
it, or restricted copying.

I actually give a free compact disc to everyone I meet!

I hope that by doing so there will be lots of fans who will attend my
performances when the time comes for me to play professionally. I have
been studying piano intensively for several years with the aim of
enrolling in music school to study musical composition. I want to write
symphonies!

Furthermore, I feel that setting my music Free is The Right Thing To Do.
I am inspired by Richard Stallman and his Free Software movement; my
music is "Free" as in "Free Speech", not as in "free beer."
It's a matter of liberty and not price.

The sharing of music over the Internet has been controversial for a
decade now. The Recording Industry Association of America has threatened
thousands with lawsuits for sharing music. But it's important to
understand that, in America anyway, our Founding Fathers created
copyright to benefit society, and not primarily to benefit the copyright
holders.

The framers of the US Constitution intended to "promote the progress of
science and useful arts" by granting creative people temporary
monopolies. But I feel that of greater benefit to society than copyright
is that computers and the Internet enable digital media formats to be
copied completely faithfully anywhere on Earth, and with near-zero cost.

But how are we musicians to feed ourselves? I plan to do so by selling
tickets to live performances, as well as T-shirts, posters and the like.

I love my music so, that I know I must set it Free.

*********************

K5's mumble submitted the following; it's obviously a lot more
compelling than my version, but I'd like to work in some of the factual
info from my version, such as Stallman being my inspiration, for a sort
of fusion of the two.

The Internet Revolution and Free Music

The advent of the Internet and the Web sparked a revolution - the
Information Revolution. No longer is information difficult and expensive
to copy - virtually unlimited amounts of information can now be copied
and distributed at near zero cost. This is the revolution inspired by
Gutenberg's Press magnified a thousand fold!

In this new age, copyright seems quaint and redundant. There are
stall-warts, many of them big and powerful! They are the ones that made
their money the old way. But their time has come, and gone. It is our
turn now. Music is culture, our culture, that should be shared freely by
all, not locked behind high walls, leased out to only those that can pay
the ransom.

But I am only one, and the most I can do is humbly share my music.
Please listen to my music, and share it with everyone you wish.

Who knows, maybe one day I will become famous and write great
symphonies. And you will already know my name.

- Michael Crawford.

***************************

Now, as to why my album is subtitled The Rough Draft. The following
will appear on the inner right-hand page of my insert. I'm basically
happy with this, but may try to tighten it up a bit:

Howard by Baldwin

Your ears do not deceive you: my piano really is out of tune.

I recorded this album in 1994. The last time my piano was tuned was in
the 1950's. My father, an accomplished musician, tuned it by ear.

I feared that tuning it after so long would change its voice – the
characteristic sound that is different for every piano. The strings were
very old and might break. They could be replaced, but the new strings
would have their own voices, quite different from the rest of the piano.

While I planned to tune it, I decided to record my piano un-tuned to
preserve the memory of its voice in case my fear was borne out.

The voice of my piano means a great deal to me. It's not just that it is
the piano I taught myself with – it belonged to my grandparents. Many of
my earliest and fondest memories are of the sound of that piano, heard
while visiting Grandma and Grandpa Crawford in Grass Valley, California.

One day my father told me how his family had come to own it:

A door-to-door piano salesman offered one to my grandmother. Grandma
angrily told the fellow to get off her property. A little while later
Grandpa Crawford drove his pickup truck home and said, “Guess what I
just bought!” He'd met the salesman on the road and bought one from him.

I understand Grandma got a new washing machine out of the deal.

This album is “The Rough Draft” because I always intended to re-record
it after composing some new songs. I've been urged to use a Steinway,
no doubt the world's best piano, but for me nothing would be special
about its voice. I will instead honor my Grandparents' memory by playing
Grandpa Crawford's 1940's Baldwin Howard for my new album.

My piano has since been tuned; its voice – and its strings – survived.

Thanks for your help!

Mike Crawford
michael AT geometricvisions.com
http://www.geometricvisions.com/music/ <-- Creative Commons Sheet Music

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Monday, November 05, 2007 12:20:26 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Disclaimer  |  Comments [0]  |  Related posts:
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