How We Talked Amanda Palmer Into Releasing Under Creative Commons
As you may know, we're fans of sharing music and creative commons and I just wanted to share a story about how I talked someone into doing the same.
The best part about this story is just the simplicity about how it happened. It wasn't a big ordeal it was just a simple conversation I had on twitter with Amanda Palmer. So here's the story...
Ben Folds, Amanda Palmer, Neil Gaiman, and Damian Kulash released an album recently on bandcamp called Nighty Night under the band name 8in8. The concept was to write and record eight songs in eight hours at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Mass. It was for the Rethink Music conference that took place April 25th - 27th. And they were selling it for $1, with all the proceeds from the first week’s sales going to Berklee City Music. Which I have to say, everything I just wrote about in that paragraph is very cool.
The conference was described as :
So I just briefly posted a message on twitter to @amandapalmer
I was delighted to find that later that day she had responded:
I was kind of confused by this second post but figured she was reading up on it and considdering it.
Then some other people viewing the conversation also asked about this move.
One was for it:
Another was wondering if it would hurt the donation they were asking for if they were allowed to share it:
I responded just by stating how I thought with the spirit of the conference that it should be offered as a medium for being re-mixable and and built upon for other artists. And that if fans wanted to promote it they would know that they were allowed to do this with permission from the artist.
The next day I got a message from the person in the previous conversation letting me know that the album was indeed now released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License or CC BY-NC
So, in brief, this means that under this artist license you could Remix or adapt the work as long as you attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). And you may not use this work for commercial purposes.
And soon after that people were talking to Amanda about wanting to make videos for the songs and other uses for artistic purposes on her twitter feed.
That's really what I/we think it's all about, using art to make art and to share the things you like freely and openly. So thanks to Amanda for considering it and acting on it. I hope it's a step in the right direction to show artists how to own their own work and let the fans know that they own it too!
The best part about this story is just the simplicity about how it happened. It wasn't a big ordeal it was just a simple conversation I had on twitter with Amanda Palmer. So here's the story...
Ben Folds, Amanda Palmer, Neil Gaiman, and Damian Kulash released an album recently on bandcamp called Nighty Night under the band name 8in8. The concept was to write and record eight songs in eight hours at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Mass. It was for the Rethink Music conference that took place April 25th - 27th. And they were selling it for $1, with all the proceeds from the first week’s sales going to Berklee City Music. Which I have to say, everything I just wrote about in that paragraph is very cool.
The conference was described as :
a solutions-focused conference, bringing together all sides and viewpoints on the subjects of creativity, commerce, and policy to engage in critical dialogue examining the business and rights challenges facing the music industry in the digital era, and to formulate ideas for the creation and distribution of new music and other creative works.I watched some of the conference streaming online that day and liked the concept behind it. But I was a bit surprised when I saw the album they released and it was under a regular copyright. I thought from the description of the conference that they were missing an opportunity to showcase the need for artists to use creative commons to represent their art.
So I just briefly posted a message on twitter to @amandapalmer
I was delighted to find that later that day she had responded:
I was kind of confused by this second post but figured she was reading up on it and considdering it.
Then some other people viewing the conversation also asked about this move.
One was for it:
Another was wondering if it would hurt the donation they were asking for if they were allowed to share it:
I responded just by stating how I thought with the spirit of the conference that it should be offered as a medium for being re-mixable and and built upon for other artists. And that if fans wanted to promote it they would know that they were allowed to do this with permission from the artist.
The next day I got a message from the person in the previous conversation letting me know that the album was indeed now released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License or CC BY-NC
So, in brief, this means that under this artist license you could Remix or adapt the work as long as you attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). And you may not use this work for commercial purposes.
And soon after that people were talking to Amanda about wanting to make videos for the songs and other uses for artistic purposes on her twitter feed.
That's really what I/we think it's all about, using art to make art and to share the things you like freely and openly. So thanks to Amanda for considering it and acting on it. I hope it's a step in the right direction to show artists how to own their own work and let the fans know that they own it too!