Smithsonian öppnar egen butik

Postat: 2005-04-11 kl. 17.59

I januari inkorporerade MSN Music Smithsonian Folkways Recordings i sin butikskatalog.

Moses Asch founded Folkways Records in 1948. He believed music was a powerful way to learn about who you are and the world you live in. The Smithsonian Institution, a public trust established by Congress in 1846 for "the increase and diffusion of knowledge," acquired Folkways Records in 1987.

MSN Music Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

Utan att skriva det beskrev New York Times den långa svansens ekonomi när de skrev om det:

Much of the original Folkways collection has been released on CD, but a majority of it has not been commercially available because the demand is so low. Of the roughly 40,000 tracks in the catalog, only about 5,700 have been commercially released, said Atesh Sonneborn, the label's assistant director. Smithsonian Folkways makes copies of anything from its collection on request, and now every track will now be available on MSN Music

NYT Smithsonian's Song Catalog Is Available Online (2005-01-20)

MSN Music skulle få exklusiv rätt att sälja Smithsonians katalog fram till september i år sas det då, men Smithsonian har redan skapat en egen butik som innehåller ännu mer musik:

Smithsonian Global Sound delivers the world's diverse cultural expressions via the Internet in an informative way for a reasonable price. It also helps encourage local musicians and traditions around the planet through international recognition, the payment of royalties, and support for regional archives.

Smithsonian Global Sound Mission Statement

Det fina är att de inte bara har sina egna arkiv där. Dels är det ett samarbete med olika organisationer redan nu och dels bjuder de in flera att delta. Dessutom vill man utbilda och bistå med utrustning till de som vill vara med. Fränt.

Regional archives around the world conserve valuable collections of world music. SGS links these institutions in an Internet-based exchange, making their holdings available to a global audience. Initially, SGS has established cooperative agreements with the International Library of African Music (ILAM), founded in 1954 and one of the greatest repositories of African music in the world, and the Archives and Research Center for Ethnomusicology (ARCE) in New Delhi, India, established in 1982 to collate, centralize, and preserve collections of Indian music and oral traditions. Global Sound plans to extend its offerings through cooperative agreements with other archives of folk, traditional, and classical music. To deliver the highest-quality audio available, SGS helps partner-archives to acquire computerized digital recording and processing equipment and supports technical training in its use. Negotiations are underway with additional archives and organizations around the world for inclusion in and partnership with SGS.

Smithsonian Global Sound Music Partners

De har till och med svensk musik i arkivet, till exempel Folkways-utgivna Swedish Folk Songs and Ballads med Sven-Bertil Taube. Sött. Vilken skatt.

Jag köpte Vårvindar friska för att fira våren. Jag fick den både som mp3-fil (utan DRM) och flac-fil.