Internet Archive: The Music Modernization Act is now law which means some pre-1972 music goes public. “One portion of the MMA makes older sound recordings published before 1972 more available to the public. It expands an obscure provision of the library exception to US Copyright Law, Section 108(h), to apply to all pre-72 recordings. Unfortunately 108(h) is notoriously hard to implement. But, as we understand it, the MMA means that libraries can make some of these older recordings freely available to the public as long as we do a reasonable search to determine that they are not commercially available.”
Music
BBC: BBC ‘to make classical music archive available’
BBC: BBC ‘to make classical music archive available’. “The BBC is set to announce plans to make its back catalogue of classical music available to the public. Director general Tony Hall is expected to say the move will mean historic and recent performances are ‘returned to the public’.”
The Syncopated Times: Tom Lord’s Online Jazz Discography
The Syncopated Times: Tom Lord’s Online Jazz Discography. “TJD Online … is available for $9.99 a month. It fully documents jazz from 1917 to the present time, and also includes ragtime and related sessions that date back to the 1890s. It is easy to use and one can quickly get a chronological listing not only of all of the sessions that a particular musician led but every date that he or she appeared on. If you ever wanted all 1,231 sessions that bassist Milt Hinton was on (dating from 1930-99), you can pull it up within moments. It is also easy to get a chronological listing of every version of a particular song including 2,385 versions of “Body And Soul” and “just” 2,126 of “St. Louis Blues.” There are over a million musician and tune entries with information on 35,000 leaders and 182,000 sessions.”
The Stage: Online platform to tackle inequality for female musical theatre composers
The Stage: Online platform to tackle inequality for female musical theatre composers. “A dedicated platform promoting female musical theatre composers is being created in a bid to move the industry towards 50:50 gender parity. The project will create an online database of female theatre composers to showcase the ‘wealth of talent’ in the UK. It also aims to collect data that can used to encourage change.”
Electronic Beats: Explore This Online Museum Of Obscure Russian Synthesizers
New-to-me, from Electronic Beats: Explore This Online Museum Of Obscure Russian Synthesizers. “Over the course of the 20th century, Soviet Russia developed a huge collection of synths, drum machines, keyboards, organs and toy music boxes that were incredibly different from the synths that proliferated in Western markets. Many of these instruments, like the Ekvodin and the Polivoks, had strange, inventive designs and sounded downright weird to Western ears.”
Opbmusic: New Nonprofit Works to Make Concerts More Accessible
Opbmusic: New Nonprofit Works to Make Concerts More Accessible. “For most of her concert-going life, [Cassie] Wilson would attend shows in non-accessible spots and brace herself for crowd surfers and other hazards that concert audiences bring. After a particularly intensive back surgery, Wilson started to care more for her own safety at shows, so she sought out ADA designated spaces. But she found a discrepancy between her experiences at venues and the experiences of those who don’t need accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities act. In 2016, Wilson founded the nonprofit Half Access, which aims to start a conversation between music venues, audience members and bands about accessibility at concert venues.”
Techdirt: Compromise Music Modernization Act Will Bring Old Sound Recordings into The Public Domain, Tiptoe Towards Orphan Works Solution
Techdirt: Compromise Music Modernization Act Will Bring Old Sound Recordings into The Public Domain, Tiptoe Towards Orphan Works Solution. “Over in the House, the CLASSICS Act was unfortunately merged with a separate bill, the Music Modernization Act (which is mostly uncontroversial) and voted through unanimously. However, it hit a stumbling block in the Senate — leading to negotiations to create a compromise between Wyden’s ACCESS Act and the original CLASSICS Act. That compromise has now been released and… it’s actually fairly decent. To be clear, this is not how anyone would draw up copyright law from scratch, and there are still bits and pieces that concern me in the bill. But compared to where we were with the CLASSICS Act, this is a pretty big improvement.”
